Third Lecture

Against this whole way of thinking, I had to assert that everything that is to be knowledge and the content of life for human beings in every direction must in some way enter directly into observation and perception. Just as external scientific facts present themselves to consciousness and can be observed, so too must spiritual and mental content come before consciousness and thereby be accessible to observation. For if it were not possible to bring into consciousness everything that in any way concerns human beings, especially in relation to their innermost being, then one would have to assume that human beings are controlled and guided by forces from unknown worlds, worlds that can at best be accessed through abstract thinking, but which can never be experienced. But anyone who carries the phenomenon of freedom, the experience of freedom in the full sense of the word, directly in their consciousness cannot help but reject metaphysical results in the sense I have indicated; they must strive to have as the results of their observation, as the possible present content of their soul, that which can influence them precisely in relation to their most intimate being. The philosophy of freedom seemed to me inseparable from what can be expressed in the sentence: “Spiritual results of observation according to the scientific method,” that is, the method of observation that science had learned to adhere to would also have to be extended to what should become the content of spiritual life for human beings.