{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 66/1917-03-31/p020","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"I might say that the most enlightened minds of the present believe that one would be committing a sin against knowledge if one were to speak of a human being's ascent to such an intuitive consciousness. And for many of the philosophical minds of the present day in particular, this intuitive consciousness is simply condemned by the fact that such a person says: Yes, it is just like clairvoyance! — Now the thing is that — in order to tie in with something — it is perhaps best characterized by characterizing the tremendous progress that has taken place in man's attitude to reality from Kant to Goethe. In doing so, one does indeed commit a sin against the spirit of many a philosopher. But this sin must be committed at some time. Kantianism is, after all, what began to erect barriers to human knowledge within the development of the continental spirit. The “thing in itself” is to be presented as something absolutely otherworldly, which human knowledge cannot approach. That is what Kantianism wants, and that is what many people in the 19th century wanted with Kantianism, right up to the present day and including the 20th century. In a few short sentences, Goethe has put forward something tremendously significant against this principle of Kantianism. And if one really wants to evaluate German intellectual life, one could consider Goethe's short essay “On the Power of Judging by Intuition”, which is usually printed in the natural scientific writings of Goethe, as one of the greatest achievements of modern philosophy, for the simple reason that what is alive in this short essay is the starting point for a tremendous development of human intellectual life. In this essay, “On the Power of Judgement,” Goethe says something like this: Yes, Kant excludes the human being from the thing in itself and only allows the categorical imperative to enter into the soul, commanding him what he should do. But if, in the moral sphere, one should rise to thoughts about freedom and immortality, why should it be closed to man to raise himself directly in knowledge to that world in which immortality and freedom themselves are rooted? — Goethe calls such a power of judgment, which transports itself into such a world, the contemplative power of judgment. Now, in his contemplation of natural phenomena, Goethe continually exercised this power of judgment. And in the way he observed plant and animal forms, he set a magnificent example of the use of this power of judgment. Kant saw this power of judgment as something demonic, which one should leave alone, which one should pass by. He called the use of this power of contemplative judgment “the adventure of reason.” Goethe countered: “Why should one, after making the effort I have, to recognize how the spirit lives and moves in natural phenomena, why should one not bravely face this adventure of reason?”","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"5. The Beyond of the Senses and the Beyond of the Soul","site_heading":null,"date":"1917-03-31","location":null,"word_count":483,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/66/1917-03-31/p020","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:identity","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"Mind and Matter — Life and Death","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA066/English/SOL2024/19170331p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"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/66/1917-03-31/p020"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/66/1917-03-31/p020","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. Unknown is not an assurance of a stenogram: check the edition's own notes before resting an argument on one word.","evidence":null,"evidence_translation":null,"evidence_source":null},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 66/1917-03-31/p020","passage_number":20,"text":"Es glauben gerade die, ich möchte sagen, erleuchtetsten Geister der Gegenwart, daß man geradezu eine Sünde wider die Erkenntnis begehe, wenn man von einem Aufsteigen des Menschen zu einem solchen schauenden Bewußtsein spricht. Und für manche insbesondere der philosophischen Geister der Gegenwart ist einfach dieses schauende Bewußtsein damit verurteilt, daß ein solcher Mensch sagt: Ja, das ist ja so wie die Hellseherei! — Nun liegt die Sache so, daß — um an etwas anzuknüpfen — man es vielleicht am besten charakterisieren kann, wenn man den ungeheuren Fortschritt charakterisiert, der in der Stellung des Menschen zur Wirklichkeit geschehen ist von Kant zu Goethe. Damit begeht man allerdings eine Sünde wider den Geist so mancher Philosophen. Aber diese Sünde muß schon einmal begangen werden. Der Kantianismus ist ja dasjenige, was begonnen hat, innerhalb der kontinentalen Geistesentwickelung Schranken der menschlichen Erkenntnis aufzurichten. Das «Ding an sich» soll als etwas absolut Jenseitiges hingestellt werden, an das die menschliche Erkenntnis nicht herankommen kann. So will es der Kantianismus, und so wollen es mit dem Kantianismus viele Menschen des 19. Jahrhunderts, bis in die Gegenwart, auch im 20. Jahrhundert. Goethe hat in wenigen kurzen Sätzen etwas ungeheuer Bedeutungsvolles gegen dieses Prinzip des Kantianismus vorgebracht. Und man könnte eigentlich, wenn man das deutsche Geistesleben recht bewerten will, den kleinen Aufsatz Goethes «Über anschauende Urteilskraft», der gewöhnlich in den naturwissenschaftlichen Schriften Goethes gedruckt ist, als eine der größten Taten der neueren Philosophie ansehen, aus dem einfachen Grunde, weil in dem, was in diesem kleinen Aufsatze lebt, der Ausgangspunkt gegeben ist für eine gewaltige Entwickelung des menschlichen Geisteslebens. Goethe sagt in diesem Aufsatz «Über anschauende Urteilskraft» ungefähr: Ja, Kant schließt den Menschen aus von dem Ding an sich und läßt nur gelten, daß hereinragt in die Seele der kategorische Imperativ, der ihm befiehlt, was er tun soll. Aber wenn man sich im Sittlichen, meint Goethe, erheben soll zu Gedanken über Freiheit, Unsterblichkeit, warum sollte es dem Menschen verschlossen sein, sich unmittelbar auch in der Erkenntnis hineinzuheben in jene Welt, in welcher Unsterblichkeit und Freiheit selber wurzeln? — Solch eine Urteilskraft, die sich in eine solche Welt versetzt, nennt Goethe die anschauende Urteilskrafi. Nun hat Goethe in seiner Betrachtung der Naturerscheinungen diese anschauende Urteilskraft fortwährend geübt. Und er hat in der Art und Weise, wie er Pflanzen und Tiergestalten betrachtete, ein großartiges Beispiel gegeben des Gebrauches der anschauenden Urteilskraft. Kantstand diese anschauende Urteilskraft wie etwas Dämonisches vor Augen, das man ja liegen lassen solle, an dem man ja vorbeigehen solle. Er nannte den Gebrauch dieser anschauenden Urteilskraft «das Abenteuer der Vernunft». Goethe stellte dem entgegen: Warum sollte man, wenn man sich so bemüht hat, wie ich, zu erkennen, wie der Geist in den Naturerscheinungen lebt und webt, warum sollte man nicht dieses Abenteuer der Vernunft mutig bestehen?","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":457,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/66/1917-03-31/p020"}],"english":["GA 66/1917-03-31/p020"],"method":"identity","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":457,"en_words":483,"ratio":1.06,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["length","meaning","audit"]},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.05,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":10452,"original_word_count":9922,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"Mind and Matter — Life and Death","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA066/English/SOL2024/19170331p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 66/1917-03-31/p020"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"high","note":"Every load-bearing name in the German counterpart appears in this English passage. That is a check on NAMES only: a translation can keep every name and still reverse who acts on whom, change a number, or soften a claim. Read the German for anything you intend to rest an argument on."},"note":"quote_safe certifies the bytes of this text. This block is about the translation as a WITNESS: who made it, and whether it carries the same names as the original. 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