The Value of Thinking : For a Cognition that Satisfies the Human Being The Relationship Between Spiritual Science and Natural Science by C.von Arnim

`As soon as you start thinking about the living sphere, you have to make the thought itself mobile. The thought must begin to gain inner mobility through your own power.' - Rudolf SteinerRudolf Steiner divides these absorbing, previously-untranslated lectures into three sections, opening with `The Value of Thinking'. Here, he discusses the quality of thinking itself, contrasting `dead physical cognition', `living imaginative cognition', `inspired cognition', and the latter's connection with previous periods of human and planetary development. He clarifies how `visionary clairvoyance' can relate to individual intelligence, and also speaks of the submergence of ideas - the effects of sad or joyful experiences and feelings - into the unconscious. These can be `life-promoting' or `life-inhibiting'. In the second section he speaks about `The Relationship between Spiritual Science and Natural Science', using a contemporary publication as a case study for how texts can be fruitfully analysed. He characterizes the spiritual-scientific method as allowing facts or personalities to speak for themselves, rather than making personal judgements. Finally, he deliberates on `Episodic Observations about Space, Time, Movement' - kinetic formula and concepts such as the speed of light - introducing, directly from his spiritual observations, notions such as `light ether'. The lectures are supplemented with an introduction, comprehensive notes, line drawings and an index.
Binding: Paperback / softback