10. The Essence of the Human Being
GA 68d/1907-07-02/p022
·1907-07-02
·
English
HighHigh alignmentThis translation's paragraph count matches the German original — the locus maps cleanly to the same paragraph in DE.
Record: mixed sources. This volume draws on more than one kind of record (transcripts, notes, documents). Check the volume's own front matter before weighing a single passage. Evidence: «Vorträge aus den Jahren 1905 bis 1909 in Form von ausführlichen Mitschriften, Zuhörernotizen und Zeitungsreferaten» (Lectures from the years 1905 to 1909 in the form of detailed transcripts, listeners' notes and newspaper reports). The publisher's description of the volume, as mirrored on AnthroWiki (GA 68d). The translation is the maintainer's, not a published one.
Until the nineteenth century, it was taken for granted, even by the external science, that there was something like this in living beings; it was called the life principle. It was only around the middle of the nineteenth century that people began to reject everything that could not be seen with the eyes; and one was considered a fool if one held on to it anyway. The materialistic scholars - such as [Vogt], Moleschott - created a world view that sought to explain life only in terms of a combination of atoms. Today, some are beginning to admit that there must be something beyond that.
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