To square the beasts
Of course it is always possible to state the opposite – and still speak the truth. So we could say: people don’t think at all, the animals are better thinkers than human beings. Look at the bees, what a wonderful pure thinking they display by doing their bee-being. The actions of the animals display a […]
Becoming free – part 2
Thinking is a purely human faculty. Our consciousness is filled with thoughts, they go on and on, they make us happy, they bring stress, they make us sad. In the night they still persist, although our awareness of them vanishes. Only in dreams can we perceive that they are still there, showing themselves in more […]
Becoming free…
‘People absolutely ‘unlearned’ thinking. They only think with the thoughts of people they recognise as authorities. People will have to learn to think themselves; every human being must start to think by himself. Otherwise they will be influenced by the spiritual world, precisely because they don’t believe in it, and they will be influenced in […]
Why should we develop a pure and independent thinking?
We don’t think the thoughts of Aristotle only because we need the contents. We think along with his thoughts because we learn to know a certain thinking skill that comes from the old Greek period, but that still isn’t a skill that human beings have developed in general. Why should we? I quote from a […]
About wisdom
From Aristotle’s Metaphysics, book alpha (Prima Philosophia), part one and part two.An exercise in pure thinking, about deduction. 1….“We have said in the Ethics what the difference is between art and science and the other kindred faculties; but the point of our present discussion is this, that all men suppose what is called Wisdom to […]
Technical revolution
In earlier blog-texts I have quoted Rudolf Steiner’s observations about the work of the angels in our souls. On the 18th of May I quoted his revealing these angels’ good work; on the 19th of August 2015 I gave a quote about the first effect of our lack of acknowledgement of these angels’ activity; on […]
Reading books
Reading books is a remarkable activity. When we read a novel that arouses our interest, we submerge ourselves in a world of thoughts and feelings of another human being – the author – who tries to communicate all kinds of situations, persons and events. When we read a study book, for instance, a book from […]
Homo sapiens and the iPhone
The philosophical reflections of this blog started with thoughts about the human being. If we want to follow the ideas of the evolution theories, we find a human being that can know about his world and himself. In so far as he is a knowing human being, we can call him Homo sapiens; in so […]
How to live a balanced life outwardly?
In a comment on the last week’s text, the following question was asked: ‘Given that perception of thinking brings the balance between sense perception and ordinary thinking, is there a way to be active in this way, ie active in outward deeds, where sense perception and ordinary thinking are an inevitable part of outward activity […]
Evil. A reflection
Over the past few months I have quoted several religious and philosophical thoughts, as they were written down throughout the ages. If we were able to think them all together at the same time, we probably would have quite a complete idea of evil in its being, and we would also have a notion of […]