The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity
GA 4
Appendix II
[ 1 ] In the following there is given again, in all its essential points, what stood as a kind of preface to the first edition of this book. Since it gives more the mood of thought out of which I wrote the book twenty-five years ago than the book's content, I bring it here as an “appendix.” I do not want to leave it out entirely, for the reason that the view always comes upon again that because of my later spiritual-scientific writings I have something to suppress in my earlier writings.
[ 2 ] Our age can wish to draw the truth only out of the depths of man's being.1Entirely left out here are only the very first introductory sentences (of the first edition) of these considerations which seem to me today completely unessential. But the rest of what is said seems to me necessary, even now, in spite of the scientific mode of thought of our contemporaries, nay precisely because of it. Of Schiller's well-known two ways, the second will especially benefit the present day:
Truth we both are seeking, you in the life without,
I within the heart, and so each finds it surely.
Is the eye healthy, it meets the creator without;
Is the heart so, it surely mirrors the world within.
A truth which comes to us from outside always bears the stamp of uncertainty about it. What appears to each one of us within his own inner life as truth, in this only do we want to believe.
[ 3 ] Only the truth can bring us certainty in the developing of our individual powers. Whoever is tormented by doubts, his powers are lamed. In a world which is a riddle to him, he can find no goal for his activity.
[ 4 ] We no longer want merely to believe; we want to know. Faith demands the acceptance of truths about which we do not have full insight. That about which we do not have full insight, however, goes against what is individual, which wants to experience everything with its deepest inner life. Only that knowing satisfies us which submits to no outer norm, but rather springs from the inner life of the personality.
[ 5 ] We also do not want any kind of knowing that has become frozen once and for all into rigid academic formulations and preserved in compendia valid for all time. We consider ourselves, each one, justified in taking our starting point from our immediate experiences, from what we live through directly and in ascending from there to knowledge of the whole universe. We are striving for a sure knowing, but each in his own way.
[ 6 ] Our scientific teachings should also no longer be formulated as though we were unconditionally compelled to accept them. No one would want to give a scientific work a title like Fichte once did: “A Crystal-clear Report to the Wider Public on the Actual Nature of the Newest Philosophy. An Attempt to Compel Readers to Understand.” Today, no one should be compelled to understand. If no definite individual need moves a person toward a certain view, we demand neither that he recognize nor agree with it. Today we do not want to funnel knowledge even into the still immature human being, the child, but rather we seek to develop his capacities so that he no longer needs to be compelled to understand, but rather wants to understand.
[ 7 ] I am under no illusions with respect to this characteristic of my times. I know how alive and extensive the tendency is to be stereotyped and without individuality. But I know just as well that many of my contemporaries are seeking to conduct their life in the sense and direction I have indicated. I would like to dedicate this book to them. It is not meant to be “the only possible” way to the truth, but it is meant to tell of that way which one person has taken, whose concern is for the truth.
[ 8 ] This book leads at first into more abstract regions, where thought must draw sharp outlines in order to reach sure points. But the reader will be led out of these dry concepts into concrete life also. I am altogether of the view that one must lift oneself also into the ethereal realm of concepts, if one wants to experience existence in all directions. Whoever knows only how to enjoy with his senses does not know the real delicacies of life. Oriental sages make their pupils lead lives of renunciation and asceticism for years before they communicate what they themselves know. The West no longer demands for science any devout exercises or asceticism, but it does require, instead of these, the good will to withdraw oneself for a short time from the immediate impressions of life, and to betake oneself into the realm of the world of pure thought.
[ 9 ] The realms of life are many. For each of these, particular sciences evolve. But life itself is a unity, and the more the sciences strive to deepen themselves in the individual realms, the more they distance themselves from a view of the living wholeness of the world. There must be a knowledge which seeks within the individual sciences the elements needed to lead man back again into full life. The scientific researcher in a particular field wants to acquire through his knowledge a consciousness of the world and its workings; in this book the goal is a philosophical one: the science itself is meant to become organically living. The individual sciences are preparatory stages of the science striven for here. A similar relationship holds sway in the arts. The composer works on the basis of the theory of composition. This last is a sum of knowledge whose acquirement is a necessary prerequisite for composing music. In composing, the laws of composition serve life, serve actual reality. In exactly the same sense philosophy is an art. All real philosophers were artists in concepts. For them human ideas become the artistic medium and the scientific method became the artistic technique. Abstract thinking thereby gains concrete individual life. Ideas become powers of life. We have the not merely a knowing about things, but rather we have made knowing into a real self-governing organism; our actual active consciousness has lifted itself above a merely passive taking up of truths.
[ 10 ] How philosophy as an art relates itself to the inner freedom of man, what inner freedom is, and whether we partake in it or can become partakers in it: that is the main question of my book. All other scientific discussions are included here only because they ultimately shed light on those questions which, in my view, concern the human being most immediately. A Philosophy of Spiritual Activity (Freiheit) is meant to be given in these pages.
[ 11 ] All science would only be the satisfying of idle curiosity, if it did not strive toward raising the value of existence of the human personality. The sciences first acquire their true value through presenting the human significance of their results. The ennobling of one single soul faculty cannot be the end of all the abilities that slumber within us. Knowledge has value only through the fact that it contributes to the all-around unfolding of the whole nature of man.
[ 12 ] This book does not therefore consider the relationship between science and life to be such that man has to bow down to the idea and dedicate his forces to its service, but rather in the sense that man takes possession of the world of ideas in order to use them for his human goals which transcend merely scientific ones.
[ 13 ] One must be able to confront the idea, experiencing it; otherwise one falls into bondage to it.
Zweiter Anhang
[ 1 ] In dem Folgenden wird in allem Wesentlichen wiedergegeben, was als eine Art «Vorrede» in der ersten Auflage dieses Buches stand. Da es mehr die Gedankenstimmung gibt, aus der ich vor fünfundzwanzig Jahren das Buch niederschrieb, als daß es mit dem Inhalte desselben unmittelbar etwas zu tun hätte, setze ich es hier als «Anhang» her. Ganz weglassen möchte ich es aus dem Grunde nicht, weil immer wieder die Ansicht auftaucht, ich habe wegen meiner späteren geisteswissenschaftlichen Schriften etwas von meinen früheren Schriften zu unterdrücken.
[ 2 ] Unser Zeitalter kann die Wahrheit nur aus der Tiefe des menschlichen Wesens schöpfen wollen. 1Ganz weggelassen sind hier nur die allerersten Eingangssätze (der ersten Auflage) dieser Ausführungen, die mir heute ganz unwesentlich erscheinen. Was aber des weiteren darin gesagt ist, scheint mir auch gegenwärtig trotz der naturwissenschaftlichen Denkart unserer Zeitgenossen, ja gerade wegen derselben, zu sagen notwendig. Von Schillers bekannten zwei Wegen:
«Wahrheit suchen wir beide, du außen im Leben, ich innen
In dem Herzen, und so findet sie jeder gewiß.
Ist das Auge gesund, so begegnet es außen dem Schöpfer;
Ist es das Herz, dann gewiß spiegelt es innen die Welt»
wird der Gegenwart vorzüglich der zweite frommen. Eine Wahrheit, die uns von außen kommt, trägt immer den Stempel der Unsicherheit an sich. Nur was einem jeden von uns in seinem eigenen Innern als Wahrheit erscheint, daran mögen wir glauben.
[ 3 ] Nur die Wahrheit kann uns Sicherheit bringen im Entwickeln unserer individuellen Kräfte. Wer von Zweifeln gequält ist, dessen Kräfte sind gelähmt. In einer Welt, die ihm rätselhaft ist, kann er kein Ziel seines Schaffens finden.
[ 4 ] Wir wollen nicht mehr bloß glauben; wir wollen wissen. Der Glaube fordert Anerkennung von Wahrheiten, die wir nicht ganz durchschauen. Was wir aber nicht ganz durchschauen, widerstrebt dem Individuellen, das alles mit seinem tiefsten Innern durchleben will. Nur das Wissen befriedigt uns, das keiner äußeren Norm sich unterwirft, sondern aus dem Innenleben der Persönlichkeit entspringt.
[ 5 ] Wir wollen auch kein solches Wissen, das in eingefrorenen Schulregeln sich ein für allemal ausgestaltet hat, und in für alle Zeiten gültigen Kompendien aufbewahrt ist. Wir halten uns jeder berechtigt, von seinen nächsten Erfahrungen, seinen unmittelbaren Erlebnissen auszugehen, und von da aus zur Erkenntnis des ganzen Universums aufzusteigen. Wir erstreben ein sicheres Wissen, aber jeder auf seine eigene Art.
[ 6 ] Unsere wissenschaftlichen Lehren sollen auch nicht mehr eine solche Gestalt annehmen, als wenn ihre Anerkennung Sache eines unbedingten Zwanges wäre. Keiner von uns möchte einer wissenschaftlichen Schrift einen Titel geben, wie einst Fichte: «Sonnenklarer Bericht an das größere Publikum über das eigentliche Wesen der neuesten Philosophie. Ein Versuch, die Leser zum Verstehen zu zwingen.» Heute soll niemand zum Verstehen gezwungen werden. Wen nicht ein besonderes, individuelles Bedürfnis zu einer Anschauung treibt, von dem fordern wir keine Anerkennung, noch Zustimmung. Auch dem noch unreifen Menschen, dem Kinde, wollen wir gegenwärtig keine Erkenntnisse eintrichtern, sondern wir suchen seine Fähigkeiten zu entwickeln, damit es nicht mehr zum Verstehen gezwungen zu werden braucht, sondern verstehen will.
[ 7 ] Ich gebe mich keiner Illusion hin in bezug auf diese Charakteristik meines Zeitalters. Ich weiß, wie viel individualitätloses Schablonentum lebt und sich breit macht. Aber ich weiß ebenso gut, daß viele meiner Zeitgenossen im Sinne der angedeuteten Richtung ihr Leben einzurichten suchen. Ihnen möchte ich diese Schrift widmen. Sie soll nicht «den einzig möglichen» Weg zur Wahrheit führen, aber sie soll von demjenigen erzählen, den einer eingeschlagen hat, dem es um Wahrheit zu tun ist.
[ 8 ] Die Schrift führt zuerst in abstraktere Gebiete, wo der Gedanke scharfe Konturen ziehen muß, um zu sichern Punkten zu kommen. Aber der Leser wird aus den dürren Begriffen heraus auch in das konkrete Leben geführt. Ich bin eben durchaus der Ansicht, daß man auch in das Ätherreich der Begriffe sich erheben muß, wenn man das Dasein nach allen Richtungen durchleben will. Wer nur mit den Sinnen zu genießen versteht, der kennt die Leckerbissen des Lebens nicht. Die orientalischen Gelehrten lassen die Lernenden erst Jahre eines entsagenden und asketischen Lebens verbringen, bevor sie ihnen mitteilen, was sie selbst wissen. Das Abendland fordert zur Wissenschaft keine frommen Übungen und keine Askese mehr, aber es verlangt dafür den guten Willen, kurze Zeit sich den unmittelbaren Eindrücken des Lebens zu entziehen, und in das Gebiet der reinen Gedankenwelt sich zu begeben.
[ 9 ] Der Gebiete des Lebens sind viele. Für jedes einzelne entwickeln sich besondere Wissenschaften. Das Leben selbst aber ist eine Einheit, und je mehr die Wissenschaften be strebt sind, sich in die einzelnen Gebiete zu vertiefen, desto mehr entfernen sie sich von der Anschauung des lebendigen Weltganzen. Es muß ein Wissen geben, das in den einzelnen Wissenschaften die Elemente sucht, um den Menschen zum vollen Leben wieder zurückzuführen. Der wissenschaftliche Spezialforscher will sich durch seine Erkenntnisse ein Bewußtsein von der Welt und ihren Wirkungen erwerben; in dieser Schrift ist das Ziel ein philosophisches: die Wissenschaft soll selbst organisch-lebendig werden. Die Einzelwissenschaften sind Vorstufen der hier angestrebten Wissenschaft. Ein ähnliches Verhältnis herrscht in den Künsten. Der Komponist arbeitet auf Grund der Kompositionslehre. Die letztere ist eine Summe von Kenntnissen, deren Besitz eine notwendige Vorbedingung des Komponierens ist. Im Komponieren dienen die Gesetze der Kompositionslehre dem Leben, der realen Wirklichkeit. Genau in demselben Sinne ist die Philosophie eine Kunst. Alle wirklichen Philosophen waren Begriffskünstler. Für sie wurden die menschlichen Ideen zum Kunstmateriale und die wissenschaftliche Methode zur künstlerischen Technik. Das abstrakte Denken gewinnt dadurch konkretes, individuelles Leben. Die Ideen werden Lebensmächte. Wir haben dann nicht bloß ein Wissen von den Dingen, sondern wir haben das Wissen zum realen, sich selbst beherrschenden Organismus gemacht; unser wirkliches, tätiges Bewußtsein hat sich über ein bloß passives Aufnehmen von Wahrheiten gestellt.
[ 10 ] Wie sich die Philosophie als Kunst zur Freiheit des Menschen verhält, was die letztere ist, und ob wir ihrer teilhaftig sind oder es werden können: das ist die Hauptfrage meiner Schrift. Alle anderen wissenschaftlichen Ausführungen stehen hier nur, weil sie zuletzt Aufklärung geben über jene, meiner Meinung nach, den Menschen am nächsten liegenden Fragen. Eine «Philosophie der Freiheit» soll in diesen Blättern gegeben werden.
[ 11 ] Alle Wissenschaft wäre nur Befriedigung müßiger Neugierde, wenn sie nicht auf die Erhöhung des Daseinswertes der menschlichen Persönlichkeit hinstrebte. Den wahren Wert erhalten die Wissenschaften erst durch eine Darstellung der menschlichen Bedeutung ihrer Resultate. Nicht die Veredlung eines einzelnen Seelenvermögens kann Endzweck des Individuums sein, sondern die Entwickelung aller in uns schlummernden Fähigkeiten. Das Wissen hat nur dadurch Wert, daß es einen Beitrag liefert zur allseitigen Entfaltung der ganzen Menschennatur.
[ 12 ] Diese Schrift faßt deshalb die Beziehung zwischen Wissenschaft und Leben nicht so auf, daß der Mensch sich der Idee zu beugen hat und seine Kräfte ihrem Dienst weihen soll, sondern in dem Sinne, daß er sich der Ideenwelt bemächtigt, um sie zu seinen menschlichen Zielen, die über die bloß wissenschaftlichen hinausgehen, zu gebrauchen.
[ 13 ] Man muß sich der Idee erlebend gegenüberstellen können; sonst gerät man unter ihre Knechtschaft.
Second appendix
[ 1 ] The following is an essential reproduction of what was in the first edition of this book as a kind of "preface". Since it is more a reflection of the mood from which I wrote the book twenty-five years ago than anything directly related to its content, I have included it here as an "appendix". I do not wish to omit it completely for the reason that the view repeatedly arises that I have to suppress something of my earlier writings because of my later writings in the humanities.
[ 2 ] Our age can only want to draw truth from the depths of the human being. 1Only the very first opening sentences (of the first edition) of these remarks are omitted here, which seem quite insignificant to me today. But what is said in the rest of it seems to me to be necessary to say even today despite the scientific way of thinking of our contemporaries, indeed precisely because of it. Of Schiller's well-known two ways:
"We both seek truth, you outside in life, I inside
in the heart, and so each finds it for sure.
If the eye is healthy, it meets the Creator outside;
If it is the heart, then it certainly reflects the world inside"
the present is especially pious to the second. A truth that comes to us from the outside always bears the stamp of uncertainty. We may only believe in what appears to each of us as truth within ourselves.
[ 3 ] Only the truth can bring us security in the development of our individual powers. Those who are tormented by doubt are paralyzed. In a world that is mysterious to him, he cannot find a goal for his work.
[ 4 ] We no longer merely want to believe; we want to know. Faith demands recognition of truths that we do not fully understand. What we do not fully understand, however, resists the individual, who wants to live through everything with his deepest inner being. Only knowledge that does not submit to any external norm but arises from the inner life of the personality satisfies us.
[ 5 ] We also do not want such knowledge that has been formed once and for all in frozen school rules and preserved in compendia valid for all times. We believe we are each entitled to start from our closest experiences, our immediate experiences, and from there to ascend to knowledge of the whole universe. We strive for certain knowledge, but each in his own way.
[ 6 ] Our scientific teachings should also no longer take on such a form as if their recognition were a matter of unconditional compulsion. None of us would like to give a scientific treatise a title such as Fichte once gave it: "Sonnenklarer Bericht an das größere Publikum über das eigentliche Wesen der neuesten Philosophie. An attempt to force the reader to understand." Today, no one should be forced to understand. We do not demand recognition or agreement from anyone who is not driven to an opinion by a special, individual need. Nor do we currently want to force knowledge on the immature human being, the child, but rather seek to develop his abilities so that he no longer needs to be forced to understand, but wants to understand.
[ 7 ] I am under no illusion with regard to this characteristic of my age. I know how much individuality-less templateism lives and spreads. But I know just as well that many of my contemporaries are trying to organize their lives along the lines I have indicated. I would like to dedicate this book to them. It is not intended to show "the only possible" path to the truth, but it is intended to tell of the path taken by someone who is concerned with the truth.
[ 8 ] The writing first leads into more abstract areas, where the thought must draw sharp contours in order to arrive at secure points. But the reader is also led out of the dry concepts into concrete life. I am of the opinion that one must also rise into the etheric realm of concepts if one wants to live through existence in all directions. He who knows how to enjoy only with the senses does not know the delicacies of life. Oriental scholars make their students spend years in a life of renunciation and asceticism before they tell them what they themselves know. The Occident no longer demands pious exercises and asceticism for science, but it does demand the good will to withdraw for a short time from the immediate impressions of life and to enter the realm of pure thought.
[ 9 ] There are many areas of life. Special sciences develop for each one. But life itself is a unity, and the more the sciences strive to delve into the individual areas, the more they distance themselves from the view of the living whole of the world. There must be a knowledge that seeks the elements in the individual sciences in order to bring man back to full life. The specialized scientific researcher wants to acquire an awareness of the world and its effects through his findings; in this writing the goal is a philosophical one: science itself should become organic and alive. The individual sciences are the precursors of the science we are striving for here. A similar relationship prevails in the arts. The composer works on the basis of the theory of composition. The latter is a sum of knowledge, the possession of which is a necessary precondition for composing. In composing, the laws of compositional theory serve life, real reality. In exactly the same sense, philosophy is an art. All real philosophers were conceptual artists. For them, human ideas became artistic material and the scientific method became an artistic technique. Abstract thinking thus gains concrete, individual life. Ideas become powers of life. We then not only have a knowledge of things, but we have turned knowledge into a real, self-controlling organism; our real, active consciousness has taken precedence over a merely passive assimilation of truths.
[ 10 ] How philosophy as an art relates to the freedom of man, what the latter is, and whether we are or can become partakers of it: that is the main question of my writing. All other scientific explanations are included here only because they ultimately shed light on what I believe to be the questions closest to man. A "philosophy of freedom" is to be given in these pages.
[ 11 ] All science would only be the satisfaction of idle curiosity if it did not strive to increase the value of existence of the human personality. The sciences only attain their true value by presenting the human significance of their results. It is not the ennoblement of a single faculty of the soul that can be the ultimate aim of the individual, but the development of all the faculties that lie dormant within us. Knowledge has value only in that it contributes to the all-round development of the entire human nature.
[ 12 ] This writing therefore understands the relationship between science and life not in such a way that man must bow to the idea and dedicate his powers to its service, but in the sense that he takes possession of the world of ideas in order to use them for his human goals, which go beyond the merely scientific ones.
[ 13 ] One must be able to confront the idea experientially; otherwise one falls under its bondage.