Journal forAnthroposophyPublishedJournal twice a year by the Anthroposophical Society in America Henry Barnes, Editor All communications should be addressed to the editor, 211 Madison Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10016. Copyrights and all other rights are reserved by the Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America. Responsibility for the contents of the articles contained herein attaches only to the writers. N um ber 6 A utum n, 1967 CONTENTS not the first decisive field of human action lie within the mind of man itself? With technical means at his disposal A NEW CONCEPT OF LIFE Ehrenfried Pfeiffer which outstrip the wildest dreams of even his most recent THOUGHT FOR MICHAELMAS Danilla Rettig forebears, the outcome of every problem which man approaches is determined by the nature of those con­ INTELLECT AND THE SENSE cepts and principles which govern the workings of his FOR TRUTH ..............................................John Gardner mind. POEMS ................................................Arvia MacKaye Ege TOWARDS A MICHAEL CULTURE Albert Steffen The atomist, whose thoughts are focused upon the world as composed of smallest entities, must, of neces­ TO A SONG SPARROW .........................Charlotte Parker sity, search for and eventually discover smaller and PIONEER PATHS OF RESEARCH Christoph Linder smaller particles, far beyond the reach of the senses, CLEARING THE UNDERBRUSH..............Henry Barnes even though these senses may be enlarged 40,000 times or more by the electron microscope. He must discover INTIMATIONS OF ANTHROPOSOPHY the atomic structure of the universe and the atomic IN AMERICAN LITERATURE Nathan Lyons energies which hold it together. A certain terminology ABOUT THE AUTHORS —which both creates and reflects an attitude—develops: “analysis”, “breakdown”, “splitting”, “fission”, “fusion”, “disintegration”, “bombardment”. Subconsciously, the mind which sees these principles as the driving forces of A NEW CONCEPT OF LIFE a material world functions along similar lines in other An Alternative to an Atomized W orld fields, trying to solve all problems of human existence Ehrenfried E. Pfeiffer within the range of these thoughts and in their term­ inology. The result is the breakdown of the individual; separation between man and man rather than a greater I union; separation between nations and peoples, disunited In a world in which war appears to be a permanent nations under the flag of the United Nations; the break­ ingredient of “peace”, where will the future’s battle be down of modern civilization in the midst of an alleged lost or won? To a degree unparalleled in history, does or seeming physical well being. The concept of the cellular structure of living or­ of physical nature, must be based on a realistic, not a ganisms has traveled a similar road. First, the cell was speculative attitude of mind. discovered as the smallest unit of an organism; then, within the cell, smaller units were found—nuclei, mito­ Man today is not satisfied merely to observe and to chondria. Each discovery, a marvelous achievement in describe, he wants to understand—yes, more than un­ itself, but the organism as such, the organism as a whole, derstand—he wants to explain what he has observed is lost to view. And again, these ideas take hold of the and described. In order to explain, the mind works on, subconscious mind and are applied to other spheres. It and thus creates a hypothesis, a theory. The investigator is forgotten, that the cellular structure described by the then develops a speculative philosophy. He begins to op­ German zoologist, Zimmerman, was taken politically as a erate with definitions, limiting his field of observation model for the USSR structure of states. to that which fits into the theory and, in regard to the other realms which he excludes from consideration, he The materialist thinks, finally, that the physical ex­ becomes an agnostic. He regards as scientific only what ploration of the universe, the creation of the guided mis­ is accessible to the physical senses, what belongs to the sile, and other space vehicles, will bring welfare and material world. This inclination of the majority in a peace to the world. They may, perhaps, replace the dove scientific age has led to the materialistic philosophy and with the olive branch, but peace they do not bring—only concept of man and of the universe. unrest. Each new technological push is hailed as a “breakthrough”. A breakthrough, into what? A minority of thinkers in the 19th and 20th centuries has had another aim in view: to remain within the realm * of the observable, expanding and heightening the facul­ The world needs a new impulse, a complete reversal of ties of perception, letting one thing explain another, by attitude and method. Yes, a breakthrough, but not the an accumulation of phenomena. This school of thought carrying of a material spaceship into the universe— avoids the pitfalls of speculation, but it requires courage though we are curious to see what it will discover, we to let one’s mind stay with the phenomena until such do not expect salvation from it—but a breakthrough of time as further observation has enlarged the horizon. the spiritual realities of the cosmos as knowledge and The mind wants to surge ahead and anticipate the future, experience into the mind, and into the heart, of man. or interpret the past beyond the limits of historical fact. The cosmos which we probe today is the material shell of a living world of non-physical forces which create One outstanding representative of the phenomenalistic and sustain the life of earth and man. Earlier ages knew method was Goethe, about whom Emerson writes in his of this spiritual cosmos in a dreamy, instinctive way— Journal for 1851: “Goethe is the pivotal man of the old mythologies, fairy tales, ancient religious traditions are and new times with us. He shuts up the old, he opens the full of this knowledge in pictorial form—but it had to new.” And, in Goethe,or the Writer, Emerson says:“I find give way before the development of our modern scientific a provision in the constitution of the worlds for the writer, consciousness, schooled in the observation of the sense or secretary, who is to report of the doings of the miracu­ world. But we have carried the development of intel­ lous spirit of life that everywhere throbs and works. His lectual consciousness as far as it can go and the world office is a reception of facts into the mind and then a is now in need of a new quality of vision through which selection of the eminent and characteristic experiences.” man can once again unite himself with the cosmos, but this time in a fully conscious, objective way. The achieve­ The Goethean school of phenomenalism has this ap­ ment of such cosmic knowledge is possible only if the proach: man, his body, soul and spirit, belong in the organs of spiritual perception which today lie dormant realm of the observable just as much as the phenomena in man are awakened and brought to life. of nature and the physical universe. Only subtler organs The herald of this breakthrough was Rudolf Steiner. must be developed for their perception. Here is an ex­ He brought to the modern mind the method of exploring tension of realism. No opposition between knowledge and the infinite along the lines of exact observation, making faith. Everything can become the subject of knowledge. this other world accessible to human experience. He “To know oneself”, to “know the world”, replaces specu­ opened up the path of knowledge whereby man, through lation, enlarging the horizon from the physical world to his own initiative and in full freedom, may develop his an observable world of the mind, of the soul and spirit. spiritual capacities and investigate the realms of phen­ omena which lie beyond the reach of the senses. This school found its greatest exponent in Rudolf Steiner, who opened the realm of the spirit to science, * —to a science of the supersensible which remains within A knowledge of the hitherto unknowable, a science of the realm of observation. In doing this, he fulfills the the supersensible, as exact and disciplined as the science prerequisite of a true scientist: painstaking observation Page 2 and exact reporting of the path and procedure according ness: whether this will be recognized and how it will be to which the observations were made. applied are crucial questions for mankind in the re­ maining years of the twentieth century. It is hard for a disciple of nominalistic speculation to accept the fact that a realm which he regards as in­ accessible can be made the subject of observation, for he would, in this case, have to tread the path of spiritual II activity toward a knowledge, the existence of which A scientist, who may be otherwise a good observer, he denies. needs also to recognize the blueprint, pattern, schedule, arrangement and organization of facts and processes in The speculative method has produced such epoch- nature. For lack of insight (and in trying to avoid the making hypotheses as the atom theories, with the result­ pitfalls of speculation) he may use the method of trial ing discovery of atomic energy and its far-reaching con­ and error. He may be lucky and hit the answer right sequences for technology, war and peace. It has produced away. The more insight he has into basic principles, the the space-ship and given the impulse for the physical less luck he needs but, by better direction, he can proceed exploration of the universe. In its ultimate consequence, it and get results faster, avoiding dead-end alleys. has demonstrated to man that the final decision about the world—whether or not there is to be survival of This writer, who considers himself more or less an either or both—is not a matter of physical, material unprejudiced empirical investigator of certain phenomena progress or technological achievements, but is, and al­ in nature, especially in the realm of growth and formative ways will remain, a matter of man’s attitude; that is, forces, has found that the Steinerian concept makes possi­ the final decision belongs in the realm of the moral and ble the arrangements and design of experiments with the spiritual orientation of man.