Philosophical Speculations

Steiner admits development of man's freedom, but essentially denies his freedom and creativity Штейнер признает развитие человека и развитие его свободы, но в сущности отрицает творчество человека из свободы Berdyaev is again spot on, in Steiner's view man's destiny is do be entirely driven by coll...

Also, I think the writings of existentialists can be a useful antidote to tendencies to regard Steiner as almost omniscient or more than human. Berdyaev's crtique of Theosophy and Anthroposophy ( http://www.berdyaev.com/berdiaev/berd_lib/1916_252b.html ) is worth looking at, as is Kafka's brief but...

I am ingoring your quote of Steiner, because we are discussing here what Cleric wrote to you and Ben. Who cares if it is "idealism anymore"? The question is whether it is true , not whether it conforms to any abstract intellectual theory. This is what Cleric keeps trying to tell you - if ...

My metaphysical belief system is anti-metaphysics. Similar to "none of the above". Jim, do you realize that when you are responding to me, you already subscribed to a metaphysical belief that my mind (with its conscious experience) exists. But you have no way to prove or verify this exper...

I changed the analogy to illustrate the point better. So if Cleric were to say, " everything I have experienced in the soul-realm results from the spiritual activity of beings ", you would say this is no longer a metaphysical claim, right? So what exactly is the point of you even making t...

If we make an analogy, let's say Cleric claims "in the physical realm we perceive a person moves when he is shoved by another person". Your reply is, "that is an ontological claim! Not an experimentally verifiable one". Does that make any sense to you? Any claim that applies to ...

You write : "Correct." But everything you say after still argues that science can be useful for resolving metaphysical questions. All the "isms" are circular. There aren't some with greater problems than others. Science is irrelevant to all of them. They are belief systems. Yes,...

What we are trying to point to is that there are no ontological claims in SS. Steiner himself has an ontology expressed elsewhere, but it's completely irrelevant to SS. Actually its counter-productive, because the person understanding SS as metaphysics/ontology will naturally move in opposite direc...

The argument is that science can't answer metaphysical questions. So what can? Nothing. There is no argument or fact that can support or refute a metaphysical position. That includes materialism, physicalism, idealism, panpsychism, dualism,, etc. Al of the isms are self-contained, circular belief s...

Eugene, Consider the deeper difference at play when Cleric says " everything results from the spiritual activity of beings ". Right off the bat, we can say, " everything in my inner world of thought-forms also results from my spiritual activity! ". Here let's just agree "sp...