{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 63/1914-01-15/p009","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"We can see: the concept that many people have who stand before the door to the answers laid out by Spiritual Science about the meaning of evil, already resided in ancient Stoic wisdom; and one cannot say that the grasp of evil as such has shown any real progress in later centuries. At the same time this can emphasise for us, how to go out and encounter a spirit, who was otherwise an exceptionally significant spirit, who lived in the time since the foundation of Christianity and who had a major influence on the forming of Western Christianity: to Augustine. Augustine too had to think over and research the meaning of evil in the world; and he came to a singular expression: that evil and real wickedness hardly exist, but they are simply something negative in that they are the negation of good. So Augustine said to himself: goodness is something positive; but in the end a human being in his/her weakness is not always able to perform it, so that goodness is limited. This limited goodness needs to be explained as something positive, as little as the shadows that are cast forth by the light, need to be explained as something positive. If one were to hear the Church Father Augustine speak about evil, so one might perhaps find such an answer naïve compared with what one might imagine is thinking that has progressed for a few centuries. But how things truly stand with regard to the question of the meaning of evil, can be set out before us, through the answer an erudite man gave precisely the same answer in our time: Campbell, who described the so-called “New Theology” and whose works in certain circles had created a great sensation. He too believes, that one cannot enquire about evil and wickedness, because they show nothing positive, but are simply something negative. We do not wish to get involved in hair-splitting philosophical deductions to refute the viewpoint of Augustine—Campbell. Since, for anyone who can think with an open mind free of prejudice, this response about the simple negativity of evil stands on the same ground as the answer someone might make and says: What then is cold? Cold is only something negative, namely the absence of heat. Therefore, one cannot speak of it as something positive. But if one turns around when it is cold, with no furs or winter clothes on, so one will then feel this negative as something very positive! This image should make it fully clear, how little one straightens things out with this answer that truly does not go beneath the surface, and which indeed even major philosophers of the nineteenth century have given: that with regard to evil and wickedness we have nothing to do with anything positive. It may be that in this regard, we have nothing to do with anything positive; but this “not positive” is precisely as negative as cold is compared with heat.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"7. Evil in the Light of Spiritual Knowledge","site_heading":null,"date":"1914-01-15","location":null,"word_count":494,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/63/1914-01-15/p009","alignment_confidence":"medium","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"not_established","translator":null,"identified_edition":"eLib2015","book_title":"Spiritual Science as a Life's Work","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA063/English/eLib2015/19140115p02.html","evidence":null,"reason":"no_translator_named","note":"Neither the lecture's own page nor rsarchive's lecture list names a translator for it. No translator is established for this lecture: nothing at the level of the lecture names one. Do not attribute this English to a translator, and do not borrow a credit from another lecture of the volume. Cite the German for anything load-bearing."},"edition_coverage":{"de":["original"],"en":["English"]},"available_versions":[{"lang":"de","edition":"original","edition_basis":null,"is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/63/1914-01-15/p009"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/63/1914-01-15/p009","paragraph_aligned":true}],"record":{"record_type":"unknown","scope":"volume","note":"How this text was taken down (shorthand transcript, listeners' notes or manuscript) is not on record here. 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The German original passage(s) above are the edition-invariant anchor — fetch them (lang='de') to verify wording before quoting across editions."},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 63/1914-01-15/p009","passage_number":9,"text":"Man sieht: der Begriff vieler vor dem Tore der Geisteswissenschaft gelegenen Antworten nach der Bedeutung des Bösen liegt schon in der alten stoischen Weisheit; und man kann nicht sagen, daß in bezug auf die Erfassung des Bösen als solchem die späteren Jahrhunderte einen wirklichen Fortschritt zeigen. Das kann sich uns gleich herausstellen, wenn wir zu einem Geist gehen, der sonst ein außerordentlich bedeutender Geist ist, der in der Zeit nach der Begründung des Christentumes lebte und auf die Gestaltung des abendländischen Christentums einen großen Einfluß genommen hat: zu Augustinus. Auch Augustinus muß über die Bedeutung des Bösen in der Welt nachdenken, forschen; und er kommt zu einem eigentümlichen Ausdruck: daß das Übel ebenso wie das eigentliche Böse gar nicht eigentlich da seien, sondern daß sie etwas bloß Negatives seien, daß sie die Negation des Guten seien. Es sagte sich also Augustinus: Das Gute ist etwas Positives; aber da ein endliches Wesen in seiner Schwachheit das Gute nicht immer ausführen könne, so begrenze sich das Gute; und dieses begrenzte Gute brauche man ebensowenig als etwas Positives erklären, wie man den Schatten, der durch das Licht hervorgerufen würde, als etwas Positives erklären würde. Wenn man den Kirchenvater Augustinus also über das Böse reden hört, so wird man eine solche Antwort gegenüber dem, was man heute bei einem schon durch einige Jahrhunderte vorgeschrittenem Denken sich vorstellen könnte, vielleicht naiv finden. Aber wie es eigentlich mit der Frage nach der Bedeutung des Bösen steht, kann uns daraus hervorgehen, daß noch in unseren Tagen ein Gelehrter genau dieselbe Antwort gegeben hat: Campbell, der die sogenannte «Neue Theologie» geschrieben hat, und dessen Werke in gewissen Kreisen großes Aufsehen gemacht haben. Auch er glaubt, daß man nach dem Übel und dem Bösen nicht fragen könne, weil sie nichts Positives darstellten, sondern etwas bloß Negatives seien. Auf haarspalterische, philosophische Deduktionen zur Widerlegung der Augustinisch-Campbellschen Anschauung wollen wir uns nicht einlassen. Denn für jeden, der unbefangen und vorurteilslos denken kann, steht ja diese Antwort von der bloßen Negativität des Übels auf demselben Boden, wie die Antwort, die jemand geben würde, der da sagte: Was ist denn die Kälte? Kälte ist nur etwas Negatives, nämlich die Abwesenheit der Wärme. Deshalb kann man von ihr nicht als von etwas Positivem sprechen. Zieht man sich aber, wenn es kalt ist, keinen Pelz oder Winterrock an, so wird man dann schon dieses Negative als etwas sehr Positives verspüren! Durch dieses Bild mag völlig klar werden, wie wenig man mit der wahrhaftig nicht tiefgehenden Antwort zurecht kommt, die ja auch große Philosophen des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts gegeben haben: daß man es gegenüber dem Übel und dem Bösen mit nichts Positivem zu tun habe. Mag sein, daß man es dabei mit nichts Positivem zu tun hat; aber dieses «Nicht-Positive» ist gerade ebenso negativ, wie etwa die Kälte gegenüber der Wärme.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":464,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/63/1914-01-15/p009"}],"english":["GA 63/1914-01-15/p009"],"method":"length","confidence":"medium","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":464,"en_words":494,"ratio":1.06,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.07,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":10981,"original_word_count":10241,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"not_established","translator":null,"identified_edition":"eLib2015","book_title":"Spiritual Science as a Life's Work","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA063/English/eLib2015/19140115p02.html","evidence":null,"reason":"no_translator_named","note":"Neither the lecture's own page nor rsarchive's lecture list names a translator for it. 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