{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 80a/1922-01-23/p008","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"Particularly when one speaks seriously of what anthroposophy can be for today's human being, one must characterize these two pitfalls that one must avoid in one's research. The one pitfall is the purely intellectual world view that wants to go beyond the supersensible through thinking left to its own devices; the other is certain mystical directions. These seek to penetrate into deeper shafts of the human soul life by means of man, as it were, immersing himself in his own inner being. They seek to bring up from these deeper shafts that which is not present in ordinary life and which connects the eternal in the soul with the eternal world-ruling powers. Anthroposophy must draw attention to these two pitfalls because it must show that it is absolutely serious about not carelessly stopping at either side, when it cannot provide a sure basis for knowledge. Anyone who can observe the inner life of the human soul with an open mind – esteemed attendees – can no more remain with a more or less nebulous mysticism than he can go beyond the limits of knowledge of nature through self-abandoned thinking. We usually do not know how that which lives in the depths of the soul is connected with external sensory impressions. We usually do not know how the human memory works. Decades ago, someone may have unconsciously or subconsciously, without fully realizing it, received some impression from the outside world. It has descended into the soul life; there it has been transformed. He may have connected with human emotional life; connected with human sympathies and antipathies, with impulses of the will. He has become something quite different, but he is still only a transformed external impression. And then, as one says, it is brought up out of the soul through inner contemplation and is thought to come from eternal depths, not from some external world through an external impression. In this way, illusions upon illusions can arise in nebulous mysticism. That is why anthroposophy cannot stop at this mystical immersion in the human interior. If the human inner life is taken as it appears in ordinary life and as it is also used for research in ordinary science.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"The Essence of Anthroposophy","site_heading":null,"date":"1922-01-23","location":null,"word_count":367,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/80a/1922-01-23/p008","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/SOL2024/19220123p01.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/1922-01-23/p008"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/80a/1922-01-23/p008","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},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 80a/1922-01-23/p008","passage_number":8,"text":"Gerade wenn man nun im Ernste von dem spricht, was Anthroposophie für den heutigen Menschen sein kann, muss man diese beiden Klippen, an denen sie mit ihrer Forschung vorbei muss, charakterisieren. Die eine Klippe ist die rein denkerische Weltanschauung, die in das Übersinnliche durch das sich selbst überlassene Denken hinaus will; das andere sind gewisse mystische Richtungen. Diese suchen dadurch, dass der Mensch sich, wie man sagt, in das eigene Innere versenkt, vorzudringen in tiefere Schächte des menschlichen Seelenlebens. Sie suchen aus diesen tieferen Schächten heraufzuholen dasjenige, was im gewöhnlichen Leben nicht da ist, und was das Ewige in der Seele verbindet mit den ewigen, die Welt lenkenden Weltenmächten. Anthroposophie muss auf diese beiden Klippen aufmerksam machen aus dem Grunde, weil sie zeigen muss, wie es ihr durchaus ernst ist, weder nach der einen Seite noch nach der anderen Seite hin, leichtsinnig bei etwas stehen zu bleiben, das doch nicht einen sicheren Erkenntnishalt geben kann. Wer nämlich unbefangen das eigene menschliche Seeleninnere beobachten kann — sehr verehrte Anwesende —, der kann ebenso wenig bei einer mehr oder weniger nebelhaften Mystik stehen bleiben, wie er über die Grenzen der Naturerkenntnis durch das sich selbst überlassene Denken hinaus kann. Man weiß gewöhnlich nicht, wie dasjenige, was im Innern der Seele lebt, zusammenhängt mit den äußeren sinnlichen Eindrücken. Man weiß gewöhnlich nicht, wie eigentümlich dasjenige, was menschliches Gedächtnis, menschliche Erinnerung ist, wirkt. Da hat irgendjemand vor Jahrzehnten vielleicht unbewusst oder unterbewusst, ohne dass er es voll bemerkt hat, irgendeinen Eindruck aus der Außenwelt empfangen. Er ist hinuntergezogen in das seelische Leben; da hat er sich verwandelt. Er hat sich vielleicht verbunden mit dem menschlichen Gefühlsleben; hat sich verbunden mit den menschlichen Sympathien und Antipathien, mit den Willensimpulsen. Er ist etwas ganz anderes geworden, aber er ist doch nur ein umgewandelter äußerer Eindruck. Und dann wird er, wie man sagt, durch innere Versenkung heraufgeholt aus der Seele und wird für etwas gehalten, das aus ewigen Untergründen komme, das nicht aus irgendeiner Außenwelt durch einen äußeren Eindruck gekommen sei. Illusionen über Illusionen können bei nebelhafter Mystik auf diese Weise entstehen. Daher kann Anthroposophie durchaus auch nicht stehen bleiben bei diesem mystischen Sichversenken in das menschliche Innere. Wenn dieses menschliche Innere so genommen wird, wie es im gewöhnlichen Leben dasteht, und wie es auch zur Forschung in der gewöhnlichen Wissenschaft verwendet wird.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":386,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/80a/1922-01-23/p008"}],"english":["GA 80a/1922-01-23/p008"],"method":"identity","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":386,"en_words":367,"ratio":0.95,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.04,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":10817,"original_word_count":10371,"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/SOL2024/19220123p01.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/1922-01-23/p008"],"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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