34. The Beginning and the End of the Earth
GA 68b/1907-12-16/p042
·1907-12-16
·
English
MediumMedium alignmentSome paragraph re-numbering between this translation and the German original — the locus may slip by a paragraph or two.
Record: listeners' notes. Written from listeners' notes, summaries, or memory rather than a shorthand transcript. The wording is the note-taker's as much as Steiner's: weigh a single striking phrase here far more cautiously than the same phrase in a stenographic volume, and do not rest an argument on one word. Evidence: «Da keine professionellen Stenogramme vorliegen, handelt es sich oftmals um notizenhaft festgehaltene Zusammenfassungen oder Berichte.» (Since no professional shorthand transcripts exist, these are often summaries or reports kept in the form of notes.). The publisher's description of the volume, as mirrored on AnthroWiki (GA 68b). The translation is the maintainer's, not a published one.
Spiritual research sees the spiritual reasons behind the external facts. For example, let us imagine two people, one of whom slaps the other one in the face. One of the two people watching the scene explains: This person had a particular inner surge of anger [therefore he raised his hand to strike]; that was the cause of the slap. But the other says: You are a dreamer, I saw it: He raised his arm, moved his hand towards the other's face, and that's how he got slapped. Of course, the soul researcher does not deny this event; but he sees that something else was going on. Thus, the spiritual researcher faces the natural scientist.
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