Third Lecture

What man experiences in his innermost being, what he experiences in relation to his relationship with the world, requires that he come to terms with himself about what in the world and in his nature gives rise to the impulse of freedom. If man cannot come to terms with this, then the consequences arise for him in his immediate life. These consequences manifest themselves in such a way that he becomes an incomprehensible being, one that is not transparent to his own knowledge and thus also to his life. He then feels in the world as if he were not standing on solid ground with his knowledge. He looks inside himself, so to speak, and where he wanted to see his own being shining and glowing, he sees a kind of hollowness. This emptiness can be discussed and philosophized about, but it is impossible to live with. It hollows out life itself, desolates it, kills its most important, its most intense drives, erases what human beings need in terms of inner substance in order to find the connection with the outer substance in the activity that is necessary for them and the world. If one wants to understand human beings in their relationship to action, then one needs a philosophy of freedom. But then, at least for the problem of freedom, one also needs supersensible research.