12. Spiritual Science as a Life's Work

What the intelligent man — they are all intelligent! — says is not entirely incorrect. It may be quite correct. If, at a time when there was no microscope, someone said that one could find nothing other than macroscopic things because the human eye cannot see anything else, this may be quite astute. But what use is it for the further progress of human thought and life? Although it is true that the human eye cannot see down to the cells of organisms because its vision is limited, humans have nevertheless constructed the microscope, and likewise the telescope, and can now see where the vision of the human eye cannot reach. Just as it can be very astute for someone to prove that the human eye is incapable of seeing cells and the like, so it can be very correct what those people say who speak of the limitations of human cognitive abilities. But does it matter whether it is correct or not? Just as it is correct that the human eye cannot see cells, but culture has led to an sharpening of the eye, so there are spiritual methods which, despite the correctness of Kantianism with regard to the limitations of the faculty of cognition, bring about a strengthening, an invigoration of the soul life, so that man can see into the spiritual world. This and other things that opponents of spiritual science cite must be grasped and understood.