Philosophical Speculations

Ok, let's say I was referring to mathematical physicists. But, as you say, seen from the perspective of PoF, the risk for the mathematicians is the same, if they take pride in abstract mathematics, i.e. arbitrarily constructed rules of transformation of arbitrarily defined quantities. The construct...

By coincidence, I am listening to a passage by Scaligero that refers to that intuitive thinking: Truth is the etheric power of thinking. That’s what truth is, there is no other truth. For example, when Galileo intuited those laws, the truth of those laws is the etheric moment when he had the intuit...

I wonder if your project should be reoriented towards summarizing/simplifying or otherwise collating, not necessarily PoF, but Cleric's various metaphorical illustrations on this forum, which themselves explore the PoF ideas but in different ways, from different angles. Very few of them reference S...

Scott, how is your PoF Simplified going? :) It's not, going, that is. I've run into a couple of problems I don't know how to deal with, so I've been preoccupied with thinking about them. One is "intuitive thinking", and how to present it in an esoterism-free way. Steiner defines "int...

Federica, Those are great diagrams. Now how to put it in words without mentioning Lucifer, Ahriman or Christ, or metabolic force on the brain. Re-reading MS, I think the following sentence provides a handle on a way forward. "Finally, a right thought has force of action like the instincts have....

I'm not convinced that the message of Part II is any more than "Base your actions on your own ideals, arrived at by your own thinking." Or as Max Leyf says: "Fundamentally, acting out of freedom means striving to realize ideals that one has set for oneself. Put another way, a free de...

One way to conceive intuitive thinking is instinctive activity that is influenced by high ideals. The other day I was watching a cat from above, as she was slowly stalking some prey in the bushes. At the same time, I could see the sun setting behind some mountains. Of course the cat couldn't see th...

Well, I seem to be stuck in Part II. On the one hand, I can't put into my own words what Steiner means by "intuitive thinking", at least as something one can distinguish in ordinary consciousness. (Any suggestions on that welcome, In Theosophy he says it is true and good ideas we get from ...

Mm. I'll add my impressions, for what it's worth. I would think that your rephrasing is similar to the previous one in the face of Steiner's pointing. It’s not the variety of motives and their consequences and our knowledge of that variety, it’s the level of necessity with which motives compel us, ...

I have a couple of questions on you Ch. 1, which I report here: Ch 1: Conscious Human Action Are we free or are all our actions determined by something outside of ourselves ? Unlike a stone’s movements, which are determined by forces outside itself (gravity, being thrown), or a baby’s reaching for ...