{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 82/1922-04-12/p023","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"When someone writes down the word “table”, they have details. They try to combine the individual letters into a word. They read. They would start the wrong activity if they said: T, and then had to assume that processes were taking place that combined the T. Then the i. Thus he who, in following an inner law of thought, penetrates the sensory tapestry with his thoughts, instead of reading in the sensory world, exempts himself from having to do so. One penetrates the sensory world and puts forward hypotheses, which is not to say anything against phenomenal atomism. Some people in the present are well aware that there must be a pure phenomenalism. That is simply the direction in which natural science is tending. The natural scientists themselves, after all, are more concerned with experimenting and observing than with reflecting on the methods. Therefore, one cannot really blame them when all kinds of constructs are added to the phenomena. Then they believe they have facts in these constructs. But certain philosophical minds feel that it must come to pure phenomenalism. In particular, among Western thinkers – in the East it is quite different – we often have such personalities who see clearly that the science of the external world must ultimately come to a pure grasp of phenomena and use thinking only to allow the phenomena to interpret themselves reciprocally. “All fact is already theory,” says Goethe. And in William James, the American who established pragmatism, a philosophical interpreter arose in response to pragmatism. In Europe, he has emerged somewhat more blatantly in the so-called “as-if philosophy,” where it is said that one should not interpret anything into the phenomenon. But one must still ascend to something that is no longer an appearance, so one does not say of what arises: it is there, but one acts as if it were there. Much clearer than this “as-if philosophy” is that of William James, who actually gives up any substantial effect of the power of thought. He is clear about the fact that with thinking one can only group external facts and come to a point where one can then control these external facts in practice in the service of human development, of civilization. So that he actually sees nothing in all the laws that man penetrates to but practical guidelines, so to speak, for getting along with the world.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"6. Anthroposophy and Agnosticism","site_heading":null,"date":"1922-04-12","location":null,"word_count":399,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/82/1922-04-12/p023","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/p023"},{"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/p023","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 82/1922-04-12/p023","passage_number":23,"text":"Wenn jemand aufschreibt das Wort «Tisch», so hat er Einzelheiten. Er bemüht sich, die einzelnen Buchstaben zum Wort zusammenzusetzen. Er liest. Er würde eine verkehrte Tätigkeit beginnen, wenn er sagen würde: T, darunter muß ich Vorgänge annehmen, die mir das T zusammensetzen. Dann das i. - So nimmt sich derjenige aus, der mit dem Denken, einem inneren Gesetz der Trägheit folgend, den Sinnesteppich durchstößst, statt zu lesen in der Sinneswelt. Man durchstößt die Sinneswelt und stellt Hypothesen auf, womit nichts gegen den phänomenalen Atomismus gesagt werden soll. Manche Menschen haben in der Gegenwart durchaus das Bewußtsein, es müsse zu einem reinen Phänomenalismus kommen. Dahin tendiert einfach die Naturwissenschaft. Die Naturwissenschafter selbst, die üben ja mehr eine Experimentier- und Beobachtungspraxis und denken weniger nach über die Methoden. Daher kann man es ihnen auch nicht besonders übelnehmen, wenn allerlei Konstruktionen hinzugefügt werden zu den Phänomenen. Dann glauben sie, in diesen Konstruktionen Tatsachen zu haben. Aber gewisse philosophische Geister fühlen, es muß zum reinen Phänomenalismus kommen. Insbesondere haben wir unter den westlichen Denkern - im Osten ist es ja ganz anders - öfter solche Persönlichkeiten, die genau einsehen, die Wissenschaft der äußeren Welt muß zuletzt dahin kommen, die Phänomene rein zu erfassen und das Denken nur zu brauchen, um die Phänomene gegenseitig sich selber interpretieren zu lassen. «Alles Faktische ist schon Theorie», sagt Goethe. Und in William James, dem Amerikaner, der den Pragmatismus aufgestellt hat, ist ein philosophischer Interpret erstanden nach dem Pragmatismus hin. In Europa ist er etwas krasser hervorgetreten in der sogenannten «Als-ob-Philosophie», wo man sagt, man solle nichts hineininterpretieren in die Erscheinung. Aber man muß doch zu etwas aufsteigen, was nicht mehr Erscheinung ist, also sagt man von dem, was da aufsteigt, nicht: es ist da, sondern man tut so, als ob es da wäre. Viel klarer als diese «Als-ob-Philosophie» ist diejenige des William James, der eigentlich aufgibt jedes substantielle Wirken der Denkkraft. Er ist sich klar darüber, mit dem Denken kann man nur äußere Tatsachen gruppieren und zu etwas kommen, wodurch man diese äußeren Tatsachen dann praktisch im Dienste der Menschheitsentwickelung, der Zivilisation beherrschen kann. So daß er eigentlich in allen Gesetzmäßigkeiten, zu denen der Mensch vordringt, nichts anderes sieht als gewissermaßen praktische Richtlinien, um mit der Welt zurechtzukommen.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":370,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/82/1922-04-12/p023"}],"english":["GA 82/1922-04-12/p023"],"method":"identity","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":370,"en_words":399,"ratio":1.08,"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. 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 82/1922-04-12/p023"],"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. See witness_completeness for how much of the original this witness holds."}}