Early/late Steiner

[Anthony66]

It's quiet around here!

In Steiner's early epistemological works (Truth and Knowledge, 1892; The Philosophy of Freedom, 1894) he argues that thinking participates in the world's ideal content. Then in his latter works (Theosophy, 1904; Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment, 1904–05; An Outline of Esoteric Science, 1910) he recasts this in spiritual-scientific terms where thinking is the lowest rung of a ladder of cognition that extends into super-sensible perception.

While I continue to grapple with and be captivated by the PoF ideas, I really struggle with Steiner's later work which appears largely unfalsifiable and probably unverifiable.

On verifiability, Steiner insisted that spiritual-science results are replicable in principle by anyone who undertakes the training. His analogy was to the microscope: you can't check a cell's structure without learning to use the instrument, and you can't check his reports without developing the corresponding organ of perception. But this struggles with inter-subjective convergence. The reason microscopy counts as knowledge isn't just that it takes training — it's that independently trained observers, given the same slide, converge on the same structure, and the training teaches technique without dictating in advance what the cell will look like. Steiner's path doesn't have this property. Trained clairvoyants across traditions — and even within anthroposophy — don't reliably converge on the same super-sensible facts.

On falsifiability, claims are insulated by an immunizing strategy. Any failure to perceive super-sensible realities can be attributed to the observer's insufficient development, not to the claim's falsity. There is no observation you could make that Steiner's framework would count as dis-confirmation, because non-perception is always explained away by the state of the perceiver. Further however, many of Steiner's super-sensible claims which touch on sensible reality have been found wanting. For example:

• Biodynamic agriculture generally doesn't produce effects beyond what the organic substrate already explains.
• Anthroposophic medicine's mistletoe therapy for cancer doesn't lead to robust anti-tumor action.
• Anthroposophical human-evolution timeline contradict settled geology, paleontology, and physics wherever they make physical-world assertions.
• Steiner's race-related evolutionary claims are simply false.
• Steiner's claim that the 4 gospels are largely shaped by 4 pagan mystery schools has been dismissed by scholarship since Steiner and place them firmly within Jewish lines.

A strategy to deal with this is to work with Steiner's early writings and continue with the exercises while parking the latter work. But I'm finding to quite unsettling having these serious concerns about the eventual fruits of super-sensible "research".

How do others deal with this?

[Kaje977]

Trained clairvoyants across traditions — and even within anthroposophy — don't reliably converge on the same super-sensible facts.

Hey, Anthony66 : -) I'm still quite new around here, but I did read many of your posts (to learn mainly), because it somewhat resonated with me too, that was before I dived deeper. So, to your quote: There are many explanations for this. For one thing, there is the problem of charlatans, that is, those who merely pretend to be clairvoyants, and, of course, those who approach the practice completely unprepared, thinking they are clairvoyants but who do not actually "see" anything at all; rather, they confuse their typical phantasy (I use this term, because Steiner uses "imagination" in a different context) with clairvoyance. Therefore, it would be questionable whether these you're talking about (you may provide some sources, if possible) are truly "trained" clairvoyants.

For example, in some circles, dreams and phantasy have often falsely been equated with clairvoyance. But that is not the same thing. The phantasy is merely the image, the tool that clairvoyance uses, a sort of proxy for clairvoyance. The best analogy that I can imagine is mathematical intuition, it's quite similar. But instead of drawings, we use formulas and concepts to nail down that intuition into something more concrete (although it will somewhat mean a sacrifice of the 'purity' of the intuition). Say, you prove the theorem of square root of 2 being irrational. In order to 'prove' it, you need a "proof idea" (somehwat like an "Aha" moment, an Aperçu) which is the 'essential' thing that makes the proof work. Then you need to nail that intuition down into logic, like predicate logic. The latter is the 'tool' to bring that intuition into something concrete, although it will never truly be 'concrete' on its own, but it is sufficient enough for many of mathematics, such as ZFC axiomatic systems.

While I continue to grapple with and be captivated by the PoF ideas, I really struggle with Steiner's later work which appears largely unfalsifiable and probably unverifiable.

Maybe I'm wrong, but from the way it sounds, it seems like you've already tried Steiner's exercises? In other words, that you've practically familiarized yourself with PoF? If so, then I think the latter part of your quote (Steiner's later work) might be frustrating you because you deep down you feel an impatience to see, at all costs, what Steiner and many others have also seen. You have this inner urge to find it. But I think that’s exactly what’s holding you back and slowing you down, dragging you back into intellectual puzzle-solving. I know this feeling too, because it's a deeply ingrained habit. To put it very briefly and simply: just let go for now. Don’t try so hard to see something specific.

It's similar to learning math or any other skill: Do it like a child. Be playful, experiment until you find something, but don't desperately try to find or see something specific. That's really the best advice I can give. It's quite paradoxical, I know, because we tend, as adults, to take things "too seriously" and thus end up rigidizing ourselves in our Thinking in the way how we approach novel topics, because we tend to measure everything new to what we have previously experienced before. But being more playful in your mood, and also open-minded, somehow makes learning things easier and also seems to help in diving deeper into spiritual science.

A strategy to deal with this is to work with Steiner's early writings and continue with the exercises while parking the latter work.

You pretty much nailed it. Maybe a few will see this in a different way than I do, but I do believe it makes no sense to deeply concern oneself with the more complex and advanced topics until one has mastered the basics, because otherwise one is quickly lured into trying to understand it yet again only via intellectual puzzling. It's like trying to read about topology and solving differential equations when you're just starting and learning about numbers and basic geometry, thus can't make much sense of it and yet again try to over-analyze it with the intellect. It will, more than often, leave the reader frustrated at the sheer vast complexity of the topic and also (yes, even in mathematics) cause one to question its practicality (e.g. what's the point of Klein's bottle or topology? What's the point of topology telling us that a coffee cup and a donut are topologically equivalent?). It's pretty similar in spiritual science.

So the solution is: Start small. Don't rush into anything; don't spend too much time reading about the practical benefits of XY or whatever else and don't just spend time on reading, reading and reading (at some point it's even counter-productive if it stalls practice). Instead, work with complete focus and perseverance, but with the spirit of a child. For example, many adults today enjoy learning to play the guitar so they can play a song on their own. A child, on the other hand, learns in a completely different way. We, adults, seek quick results. We often want to learn specific songs or chords. Children, on the other hand, live in the moment. They want to have fun with the sound, with fingering the chords, and with experimenting. Adults learn in a highly intellectual way: they analyze music theory, rhythmic structures, and tablature. Children learn aurally and by imitation. They mimic movements and pick up sounds just like a native language. Adults have high expectations of themselves, and mistakes tend to hold them back more often. Children, on the other hand, are more open-minded about mistakes. They correct themselves as they play (sometimes, of course, with guidance from an older, more experienced person in the field) without losing heart.

Really, so much we can learn from the way how children interact with the world!

[AshvinP]

...

How do others deal with this?

It's nice to see that you are still here and contemplating such questions, Anthony. I believe Kaje's indications have honed in on the most important point. If you find a somewhat profound value in working with PoF and the phenomenological essays, as we all do, you should continue focusing your efforts there. Continue playfully observing and experimenting with your inner process through the anchoring of the concepts, illustrations, exercises, etc. provided on the forum. It may be interesting to further contemplate the 'captivation' you mention - what feels captivating about it, why might that be, what does it point to?

Also, post a few comments on them! It truly helps to try and express some of these inner principles in our own concepts and words (as Kaje did on GL Part 1, for example), even if we feel that can only be clumsily expressed at this point, and even if it's only a few sentences long. That makes it a more interactive experience for us and helps us feel more intimately the process of independently exploring supersensible facts and relations, so then we have firsthand experience with supersensible research and don't only feel it as something we have to contemplate from the sidelines (like we do with most natural scientific research).

The one thing we know for certain, even at the beginning of our journey, is that this inner spectrum of perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and impulses (or intuitive intents) is critical to everything we pursue in life, what we have called the process of 'intuitive navigation', and that it is woefully neglected by modern education and research methods. Even if we don't have confidence in the most expansive supersensible communications yet, we can have complete confidence that there is something of great importance missing from the standard sense-constrained picture of 'what reality is', 'how reality works', 'who we are', and 'what we are doing' within the flow of experience. Shouldn't we go deeper and deeper into what is so conspicuously missing?

And that applies to spiritual pictures as well. As I have unfortunately seen in my own interactions with Anthroposophists, the 'later work' simply cannot be properly oriented to without these phenomenological foundations. Otherwise, it simply becomes an extrapolation of the familiar sense-constrained picture of reality. We imagine that there may be additional 'spiritual' objects, forces, energies, etc. that exist (or existed) parallel to or within the imagined spatial container of our familiar sensory environment in some way (see GL Part 7 for a phenomenological exploration of our feeling for 'space'). Interestingly enough, the reason why many Anthroposophists get entangled with superstitious and unreasonable scientific conceptions is the same reason why many skeptics dismiss the revelations as unverifiable. This is why it is imagined the sensory record should somehow prove or disprove the supersensible dynamics of the evolutionary process. Indeed, IF we choose to conceive the dynamics in that sense-extrapolated way, then it is all unverifiable and practically useless. It is helpful to contemplate the following:

https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA161/En ... 27p01.html

This is a matter of slow, selfless development. In particular, it must be said that the study of Spiritual Science is indispensable to this development. It must be emphasized again and again that Spiritual Science, once it is presented, can truly be understood. It cannot be emphasized often enough that one does not need to be a clairvoyant to understand Spiritual Science. Of course, one must be a clairvoyant to arrive at the results; but once they are there, one need not be a clairvoyant.

This understanding of Spiritual Science must precede the actual act of seeing. Here, too, one can say: the correct path is the reverse of the one that is correct in the physical-sensory world. In the physical-sensory world, we first have the correct perceptions, then we move on to intellectual contemplation; we form our scientific judgments afterward. When ascending into the spiritual world, it is the other way around. There we must first develop the concepts and mental images, must make an effort to objectively acclimate ourselves to Spiritual Science; otherwise we can never be sure that any observation in the spiritual world is interpreted by us in the right sense. There, science must indeed precede the act of seeing. And that is what is so infinitely uncomfortable for many: that they are supposed to study Spiritual Science. Many accept this as an incomprehensible imposition. For they strive to have visions in the spiritual world. Certainly, these can be obtained relatively easily; but to interpret them correctly requires that one truly engage with Spiritual Science objectively and selflessly, and allow it to permeate one’s being.

And I am sure you have experienced glimmers of the non-clairvoyant understanding that is spoken about above when contemplating some of the lectures, even if you are choosing to focus on those topics where you haven't experienced that at the moment. This 'objective acclimation' is how the phenomenological explorations should be understood, and if we venture into the later lectures, the spiritual concepts should be linked back to those explorations as much as possible, to concrete inner experiences that are non-clairvoyantly accessible. For example, most people (and perhaps you) would consider the supersensible research about 'folk spirits' or 'archangels' to be a kind of unverifiable speculation. But we aren't forced to approach it in that way, as an abstract conceptual placeholder for something that will only be discovered through spectacular visions in the future (or will never be discovered). Instead, we can imaginatively approach it more like Cleric illustrated in this post, right here and now.

As we have discussed, the inner method of pursuing spiritual science is quite different from our typical 'end-user' approach to gathering knowledge about the sensory world (or at least its most superficial transformations) and testing that knowledge against how well it produces immediate outer results that conform with myopic aims. Less importance is placed on the content of the final results, on making sure it all corresponds exactly to the content found in other traditions and systems, and more on understanding the inner process through which those results are reached. Then we begin to understand what we are actually doing, inwardly, when pursuing thinking inquiries in philosophy, theology, natural science, etc., and seeking certainty in the flow of experience more generally. It is what we have always been doing as human souls, in one form or another. The soul should begin to inwardly transform its perspective on the experiential flow, and then the answers to its questions about the reliability, objectivity, verifiability, etc. of supersensible experiences naturally arise. Put another way, the soul experiences itself becoming the answer to those questions through its inner stretching.

We could certainly try to delve deeper into some of the points you made about the 'claims found wanting', but from my perspective, all of that would be meaningless unless we first explore the question of what spiritual science is, at its root. This question is what we have been exploring on the forum essays and posts for some years now. If we insist on imagining it as a more exotic or expansive form of the familiar natural scientific method of completely detached observation, experimentation, and applications for immediate gratification of myopic Earthly interests and desires, then there is simply no chance of reaching a satisfying understanding of how to understand and deal with its revelations.