{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 80a/1922-01-17/p019","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"It is now almost half a century since the great physiologist du Bois-Reymond gave a speech at the 45th Naturalists' Conference in Leipzig that must always be referred to, despite the fact that it has been talked about an extraordinary amount and has now almost been forgotten and disappeared from the discussion. This speech was about the “limits of knowledge of nature”, and du Bois-Reymond rightly states on the one hand, the limits of knowledge of nature, the material world in its essence. He says: Wherever matter comes into play, the human mind cannot penetrate. It penetrates from the external observation of the external sensory phenomena to the revelation of material existence, but it cannot specify what matter itself actually is. This is the one limit du Bois-Reymond indicates. He indicates the other limit as that of human consciousness, but today this is nothing other than the human soul. He says: Even with the most complete knowledge of nature, one cannot even gain any idea of how the simplest sensation comes about in the human soul. Even if one knew quite clearly how carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen atoms move in the human brain, one would never be able to fathom from a clear insight into these movements how the simplest sensation – “I see red”, “I smell the scent of roses” – comes about, that is, how the first elements of mental life come about.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"Anthroposophy and the Riddle of the Soul","site_heading":null,"date":"1922-01-17","location":null,"word_count":236,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/80a/1922-01-17/p019","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:identity","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"The Essence of Anthroposophy","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA080a/English/SOL2024/19220117p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"edition_coverage":{"de":["original"],"en":["English"]},"available_versions":[{"lang":"de","edition":"original","edition_basis":null,"is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/80a/1922-01-17/p019"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/80a/1922-01-17/p019","paragraph_aligned":true}],"record":{"record_type":"unknown","scope":"volume","note":"How this text was taken down (shorthand transcript, listeners' notes or manuscript) is not on record here. Unknown is not an assurance of a stenogram: check the edition's own notes before resting an argument on one word.","evidence":null,"evidence_translation":null,"evidence_source":null},"other_renderings":{"loci":[{"locus":"GA 297a/1922-01-17","ga":"297a","lecture":"1922-01-17","kind":"reprint","relation":"the same text served under another volume (a reprint or another edition)"}],"note":"The same lecture is also served at the loci listed, each with how it relates to this one. They are ONE witness, not independent attestations: quote the rendering you fetched, and do not cite another as corroborating it. Wording differs between translations, so a quotation found in one need not occur in the other."},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 80a/1922-01-17/p019","passage_number":19,"text":"Es ist jetzt fast ein halbes Jahrhundert her, da hat der große Physiologe du Bois-Reymond auf der 45. Naturforscherversammlung in Leipzig eine Rede gehalten, auf die immer wiederum hingewiesen werden muss, trotzdem außerordentlich viel über sie gesprochen worden ist und sie heute fast vergessen und aus der Diskussion verschwunden ist. Diese Rede handelte über die «Grenzen der Naturerkenntnis», und du Bois-Reymond gibt mit Recht auf der einen Seite an die Grenze des Naturerkennens, die materielle Welt in ihrem Wesen. Er sagt: Da hinein, wo Materie kommt, kann der menschliche Geist nicht eindringen. — Er dringt in die äußere Beobachtung der äußeren Sinneserscheinungen zu der Offenbarung des materiellen Daseins, aber er kann nicht angeben, was eigentlich die Materie selber ist. Das gibt du Bois-Reymond als die eine Grenze an. Die andere Grenze gibt er als diejenige des menschlichen Bewusstseins, das ist heute aber nichts anderes als des menschlichen Seelenlebens, an. Er sagt: Mit der vollkommensten Naturerkenntnis kann man noch nicht einmal irgendeine Vorstellung gewinnen darüber, wie die allereinfachste Empfindung in der Menschenseele zustande kommt. Wenn man auch ganz klar wüsste, wie im Menschengehirn sich bewegen Kohlenstoff-, Wasserstoff-, Stickstoff-, Sauerstoff-Atome, man würde niemals aus der klaren Einsicht in diese Bewegungen ergründen können, wie die einfachste Empfindung — «ich sehe rot», «ich rieche Rosenduft» — zustande kommt, das heißt wie die ersten Elemente des Seelenlebens zustande kommen.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":224,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/80a/1922-01-17/p019"}],"english":["GA 80a/1922-01-17/p019"],"method":"identity","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":224,"en_words":236,"ratio":1.05,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["length","meaning","anchors","audit"]},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.06,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":10325,"original_word_count":9735,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"The Essence of Anthroposophy","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA080a/English/SOL2024/19220117p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 80a/1922-01-17/p019"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"high","note":"Every load-bearing name in the German counterpart appears in this English passage. That is a check on NAMES only: a translation can keep every name and still reverse who acts on whom, change a number, or soften a claim. Read the German for anything you intend to rest an argument on."},"note":"quote_safe certifies the bytes of this text. This block is about the translation as a WITNESS: who made it, and whether it carries the same names as the original. 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