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Anonymous Posted 14 years ago
Grammar
excerpt from a book
Please help me with this fragment from Rudolf Steiner's "The Story of My Life". It's the last sentence that's nettesome for me.
"It was no light matter for my mental life at that time that the philosophy which I learned from others could not in its thought be carried all the way to the perception of the spiritual world. Because of the difficulty that I experienced in this respect, I began to fashion a form of “theory of knowledge” within myself. The life of thought in men came gradually to seem to me the reflection radiated into physical man from that which I experienced in the spiritual world. Thought experience was to me the thing itself with a reality into which – as something actually experienced through and through – doubt could find no entrance."
I'm not sure if I understand the last sentence - "Thought experience was to me the thing itself with a reality into which (...)doubt could find no entrance". Does it simply mean, that the experience of thought was to the author well-known and reliable? What does "thought experience was to me the thing itself with..." mean? Thank you!
"It was no light matter for my mental life at that time that the philosophy which I learned from others could not in its thought be carried all the way to the perception of the spiritual world. Because of the difficulty that I experienced in this respect, I began to fashion a form of “theory of knowledge” within myself. The life of thought in men came gradually to seem to me the reflection radiated into physical man from that which I experienced in the spiritual world. Thought experience was to me the thing itself with a reality into which – as something actually experienced through and through – doubt could find no entrance."
I'm not sure if I understand the last sentence - "Thought experience was to me the thing itself with a reality into which (...)doubt could find no entrance". Does it simply mean, that the experience of thought was to the author well-known and reliable? What does "thought experience was to me the thing itself with..." mean? Thank you!
Top answer
That is necessarily a translation, so we are at least that far removed from his intent. Steiner was an Austrian crackpot. I have read the chapter your sentence is from (in English), and I am no wiser.
- That is necessarily a translation, so we are at least that far removed from his intent.
- Steiner was an Austrian crackpot.
- I have read the chapter your sentence is from (in English), and I am no wiser.
- The sentence has several problems.
- I have a mental list of Words We Should Never Write.
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2 Answers
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That is necessarily a translation, so we are at least that far removed from his intent. Steiner was an Austrian crackpot. I have read the chapter your sentence is from (in English), and I am no wiser.
The sentence has several problems. I have a mental list of Words We Should Never Write. "Very" is one. "Thing" is another. "The thing itself" is meaningless. Steiner strayed over the line th
The sentence has several problems. I have a mental list of Words We Should Never Write. "Very" is one. "Thing" is another. "The thing itself" is meaningless. Steiner strayed over the line th
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AnonymousThought experience was to me the thing itself with a reality into which – as something actually experienced through and through – doubt could find no entrance.It sounds like a borrowing of the "cogito" from DesCartes' Meditations (I think, therefore I am) mixed with some Kant (das Ding an Sich: the thing in itself, as opposed to a seco
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