{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 82/1922-04-12/p020","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"This agnosticism can first be characterized in terms of its theoretical aspect. It is present when a person speaks in the way, for example, Herbert Spencer spoke. Many others have followed in his footsteps, but they are not fully aware that they are agnostics, although they are actually agnostic in their entire way of thinking. He said: We see the world of the senses around us. We have the intellect, which rises from observation and experiment to the contemplation of the laws in this world. - To this we add what we can survey from ordinary consciousness as phenomena of the soul. Here too, a makeshift search is made, for it is only makeshift, for some kind of law. But then those who do not simply reject every supersensible reality, contenting themselves with the intellectual comprehension of sense perceptions and inner soul experiences as they present themselves to ordinary consciousness, , said: Yes, but one cannot penetrate with human abilities to what now lies as some or many origins behind these appearances; one cannot achieve a real gnosis, a real gnosticism, no knowledge. One is an enlightened person precisely because one admits that the origins of things cannot be known or investigated. Agnosticism in this form has taken hold in wide circles. It also exists in different variations. This agnosticism, when it appears philosophically, is a kind of opposite to anthroposophy, and I could, if I felt like it, start from this point in time to turn polemically critical, abusive if you will, against contemporary agnosticism, depending on my mood. What can be said about it, insofar as it really brings corruption to the human forces of progress in civilization, can soon be read in the journal “Die Drei”. I explained it in a lecture I gave at a Stuttgart School of Spiritual Science course. As I said, one could also approach the matter from this side. But I do not wish to do that today. I should like to show that this agnosticism also has its origin in the evolution of the human spirit.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"6. Anthroposophy and Agnosticism","site_heading":null,"date":"1922-04-12","location":null,"word_count":345,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/82/1922-04-12/p020","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:identity","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2025","book_title":"So That Man may Become Fully Human","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA082/English/SOL2025/19220412p01.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/82/1922-04-12/p020"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/82/1922-04-12/p020","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. 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Man sucht auch dadrinnen notdürftig, denn es geschieht nur notdürftig, irgendwelche Gesetzmäßigkeiten. Dann aber wird von denjenigen, die nicht jedes Übersinnliche einfach ablehnen, indem sie sich begnügen mit dem intellektuellen Auffassen der Sinneswahrnehmungen und der inneren Seelenerlebnisse, wie sie sich zunächst für das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein ergeben, gesagt: Ja, aber man kann nicht zu dem, was nun als irgendein Urgrund oder viele Urgründe hinter diesen Erscheinungen liegt, mit menschlichen Fähigkeiten vordringen,; man kann nicht eine wirkliche Gnosis, einen wirklichen Gnostizismus erringen, keine Erkenntnis. Man ist gerade dadurch ein aufgeklärter Mensch, daß man zugesteht, die Urgründe der Dinge können nicht erkannt, nicht erforscht werden. — Der Agnostizismus hat gerade in dieser Form weite Kreise ergriffen. Das ist auch in verschiedenen Variationen vorhanden. Dieser Agnostizismus ist nun allerdings, wenn er philosophisch auftritt, eine Art Gegensatz zur Anthroposophie, und ich könnte ja, wenn es mich danach gelüsten würde, von diesem Zeitpunkte an anfangen, mich polemisch kritisierend, schimpfend meinetwegen, je nach Temperament, gegen den zeitgenössischen Agnostizismus zu wenden. Dasjenige, was über ihn zu sagen ist, sofern er wirklich Verderbnis bringt den menschlichen Fortschrittskräften der Zivilisation, das wird man demnächst in der Zeitschrift «Die Drei» lesen können. Ich habe es ausgeführt in einem Vortrage, den ich bei einem Stuttgarter Hochschulkursus gehalten habe. Wie gesagt, man könnte auch von dieser Seite die Sache anfassen. Aber das möchte ich heute nicht, Ich möchte in diesem Agnostizismus doch auch aufzeigen etwas, was notwendigerweise einmal heraufkommen mußte in der geistigen Menschheitsentwickelung.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":337,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/82/1922-04-12/p020"}],"english":["GA 82/1922-04-12/p020"],"method":"identity","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":337,"en_words":345,"ratio":1.02,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["length","meaning","anchors","audit"]},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.04,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":12477,"original_word_count":12023,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2025","book_title":"So That Man may Become Fully Human","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA082/English/SOL2025/19220412p01.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. 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