2. Human beings as Spiritual and Soul Beings

Today I would like to examine one sub-question as comprehensively as possible: the question of human beings as soul beings and spirit beings. Just by uttering these words, one actually touches on the question of the human soul in a way that is quite foreign to the current view of the world. The current view of the world, if it even allows itself to look at anything other than what biology, physiology, and experimental psychology have to offer, speaks of a duality of man in terms of body and soul. Today we will show that this division of the human being into body and soul alone must lead to the most difficult misunderstandings, which actually distract a truly scientific view from the highest human mysteries. Today, it is believed that the so-called mysteries of the soul already include the mystery of the spirit, and by indulging in this misunderstanding, one will encounter the approval of many natural scientists and also many contemplators of the soul. I would like to begin by saying that the spiritual science referred to in these lectures stands in a peculiar relationship to the scientific and philosophical world views. Those of you who have been attending these lectures for years now know how I have emphasized again and again that the spiritual science I represent is not in the least at odds with modern scientific research, but on the contrary, is fully grounded in this research, and precisely because it stands more firmly on scientific ground than the scientific worldview itself, it feels compelled to rise from the mere observation of nature and its life to the observation of real spiritual life. The scientific view of the world alone, which, we may already say, has become second nature to a large part of our contemporaries, we may well say, has become second nature to a large part of our contemporaries, which — quite rightly, in fact — carries the thoughts, ideas, even the habits of feeling and the cognitive drives of the present, this view of the world, even in its most refined representatives, behaves in such a way that spiritual science finds it extremely difficult to meet with any understanding among its contemporaries. I would like to say a few introductory words about this, because it will be necessary for our further consideration.