CW 170 The Riddle of Humanity: Lecture 4 (Dornach, 5 August 1916) by Rudolf Steiner
Oct 6, 2026 · 48 min · 14 segments
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Oct 6, 2026 · 48 min · 14 segments
In so doing, it is extraordinarily important for us to be clear that given the Greeks' view of the world, a materialistic explanation of the connections between body and soul would have been out of the question.
Today, when someone says that this or that convolution of the brain is the speech center, he is thinking about the location of the faculty in a more materialistic way.
For the most part, such a person is only thinking of how the speech sounds might be produced purely mechanically at some particular place in the brain.
Even if he is not explicitly a materialist, at the very least he will think that anyone who wants to understand the real connections must conceive of the act of speaking in more or less materialistic terms.
The Greeks could speak much more extensively about the inner connections between body and soul without arousing any materialistic assumptions, for they still felt that the things of the external world could be seen as revelations and manifestations of the spirit.
Today, it does not occur to someone who is speaking about the speech center in the brain that this speech center is, in the first instance, built in the spirit.
Nor does he think of what is there materially as being a sign or symbol or likeness of the spirit that is behind it and exists quite independently of those spiritual events that are played out in the human soul.
The Greeks always saw the entire physically existing human being as a likeness and a symbol of the supersensible spiritual reality that stands behind him.
It must be conceded that most people of today would not find such a conception at all easy, for even though we may not want them, many materialistic notions have adhered to our souls.
Just consider what was said in the last lecture about how a person's head has actually been formed in the spiritual world, how its source is in the spiritual world, and how essentially it was prepared in the spiritual world in the time between the previous death and this birth.
These days, it would be astonishing to meet someone who does not say, quote, we know for certain that the head is formed in the mother's body during the time of pregnancy.
It is mad to say that it is really formed during the long period between the last death and this birth or conception, close quote.
Anyone who thinks in wholly materialistic terms, in quotes, thinks naturally, one is almost bound to say, must view these aforementioned assertions as a form of madness.
But as you shall see, if you picture matters in the manner of what follows, it will nevertheless be possible for you to arrive at the appropriate thoughts.
Naturally, prior to conception, everything to do with the head is invisible.
No meteor descends from the heights of heaven to lodge in the mother's body.
Of course not.
But the forces required for the human head, namely the forces that form and shape it, are active during the time between death and a new conception.
Think of it as a more or less invisible but already shaped head.
Of course, when I use lines to draw it, they represent something invisible.
Only forces are present, and there's a drawing.
Nor should these forces be imagined as having the shape of the physical head, but they are the forces that cause the physical shape of the head, bring it about.
And these begin to work on matter during the time in the mother's body.
The matter takes on form in accordance with these forces.
In so doing, it is extraordinarily important for us to be clear that given the Greeks' view of the world, a materialistic explanation of the connections between body and soul would have been out of the question.
Today, when someone says that this or that convolution of the brain is the speech center, he is thinking about the location of the faculty in a more materialistic way.
For the most part, such a person is only thinking of how the speech sounds might be produced purely mechanically at some particular place in the brain.
Even if he is not explicitly a materialist, at the very least he will think that anyone who wants to understand the real connections must conceive of the act of speaking in more or less materialistic terms.
The Greeks could speak much more extensively about the inner connections between body and soul without arousing any materialistic assumptions, for they still felt that the things of the external world could be seen as revelations and manifestations of the spirit.
Today, it does not occur to someone who is speaking about the speech center in the brain that this speech center is, in the first instance, built in the spirit.
Nor does he think of what is there materially as being a sign or symbol or likeness of the spirit that is behind it and exists quite independently of those spiritual events that are played out in the human soul.
The Greeks always saw the entire physically existing human being as a likeness and a symbol of the supersensible spiritual reality that stands behind him.
It must be conceded that most people of today would not find such a conception at all easy, for even though we may not want them, many materialistic notions have adhered to our souls.
Just consider what was said in the last lecture about how a person's head has actually been formed in the spiritual world, how its source is in the spiritual world, and how essentially it was prepared in the spiritual world in the time between the previous death and this birth.
These days, it would be astonishing to meet someone who does not say, quote, we know for certain that the head is formed in the mother's body during the time of pregnancy.
It is mad to say that it is really formed during the long period between the last death and this birth or conception, close quote.
Anyone who thinks in wholly materialistic terms, in quotes, thinks naturally, one is almost bound to say, must view these aforementioned assertions as a form of madness.
But as you shall see, if you picture matters in the manner of what follows, it will nevertheless be possible for you to arrive at the appropriate thoughts.
Naturally, prior to conception, everything to do with the head is invisible.
No meteor descends from the heights of heaven to lodge in the mother's body.
Of course not.
But the forces required for the human head, namely the forces that form and shape it, are active during the time between death and a new conception.
Think of it as a more or less invisible but already shaped head.
Of course, when I use lines to draw it, they represent something invisible.
Only forces are present, and there's a drawing.
Nor should these forces be imagined as having the shape of the physical head, but they are the forces that cause the physical shape of the head, bring it about.
And these begin to work on matter during the time in the mother's body.
The matter takes on form in accordance with these forces.
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