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  Version 2.5.4  

Aspects of Human Evolution

On-line since: 30th September, 2009

By Rudolf Steiner

Translated by Rita Stebbing

Bn/GA 176

This volume goes deeply into questions of the soul's evolving, changing needs for development. Steiner shows how
the natural development of the soul stops at about the age of 27. After that we no longer inwardly grow unless we
bring it about ourselves. Steiner also explains that a comprehension of how we arrive at aesthetic assessments is
dependent on an understanding of the higher members of the human being and their relationships to the lower
members. This volume along with Karma of Materialism completes the entire German volume GA 176.

The eight lectures presented here were given between May and July of 1917 in Berlin. In the collected edition of
Rudolf Steiner's works, the volume containing the German texts is entitled, Menschliche und menschheitliche
Entwicklungswahrheiten. Das Karma des Materialismus (Vol. 176 in the Bibliographic Survey). They were translated
from the German by Rita Stebbing.

This volume is presented here with the kind permission of the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach,
Switzerland.

Copyright © 1987
This e.Text edition is provided with the cooperation of:
The Anthroposophic Press

Thanks to an anonymous donation, this lecture has been made available.

CONTENTS

  Cover Sheet  
Publisher's Note
Contents
Foreword by J. Leonard Benson
 
Lecture I May 29, 1917
The general age of mankind as a whole is receding. This
means that the development of man's soul and spirit ceases
 to be dependent on the physical body at an ever earlier age.
At the time of the ancient Indian cultural epoch this
dependence lasted up to the age of 56, receding during that
epoch to 49. During the Persian epoch it receded to the age
of 42, during the Egyptian-Chaldean epoch to the age of 35,
during the Graeco-Latin epoch to the age of 28, so that at the
beginning of the present fifth post-Atlantean epoch man's
soul and spirit were dependent on the physical body only
up to the age of 28 and it has by now receded to the age of
27. This has far-reaching consequences for mankind's
evolution. At the time the Mystery of Golgotha took place
mankind's age had receded to 33 and therefore coincided
exactly with the age of Christ Jesus. This event bestowed
upon man the power to take his inner development in hand
which will otherwise cease at the age of 27.
Lecture II June 05, 1917
The necessity not only for different, but for more mobile
concepts. Goethe's greatest contribution was his ability to
bring movement into concepts. The concepts of spiritual
science are not only new but of necessity mobile. The
experience of God the Father is bound up with the growing,
thriving forces of the body. When the bodily forces began to
decline in ancient times man could experience the spirit of
the cosmos, later known as the Christ, because his soul and
spirit were still dependent on the body in mature age. As
the age of mankind receded, so did the experience of the
cosmic Christ. To be an atheist is an illness, to deny the
Christ a tragic destiny, not to recognize the spirit is
blindness of soul.
Lecture III June 19, 1917
Because of the soul and spirit's dependence on the body in
the early post-Atlantean epochs, people grew wise as they
grew old. The elders were therefore the natural lawgivers.
People experienced the spirits of the elements. This meant
that the earth was experienced as a living being whose
physiognomy was reflected in the various cultures. In the
Persian culture the teaching of Ormuzd and Ahriman, of
Light and Darkness, arose as a consequence of man's
experience of the spiritual world growing dark when, on
awakening, he plunged into the body. In the Egyptian-
Chaldean epoch arose the cult of the stars. In the Greek
epoch, what had formerly been direct experience became
philosophy, mainly through Aristotle. Christ's union with
mankind's evolution was an inherent necessity. Modern
theologians speak of Christ, but what they describe is God
the Father. Thoughts become ever more abstract in the
 West, whereas in Eastern Europe an intellectuality is
developing which expresses itself mystically. The manifesto
sent out by Czar Peter III was formulated in concrete
concepts and led to the ending of the Seven Years War. The
ideas emerging in the West in regard to the 1914 world war
are completely abstract, with no relation to the reality.
Lecture IV June 26, 1917
Two aspects of the modern world's attitude to spiritual
knowledge are described. On the one hand a modern
scientist, Moritz Benedikt, arrives at a recognition of
Goethe's theory of color, purely through his scientific
research into the phenomenon of water divining. On the
other, a modern professor of philosophy, Max Dessoir, not
only rejects the science of the spirit, but by misquoting at
great length passages from Occult Science and other books
he deliberately sets out to falsify it.
Lecture V July 03, 1917
Franz Brentano — a representative of modern striving man.
His deep concern is the true nature of the human soul. But
without spiritual insight he has no possibility of arriving at
proper answers to his questions concerning the true and
the good. Brentano's greatness reveals itself not so much in
his conclusions, as in the earnestness of his striving. The
reality of truth and the source of the good cannot be
discovered without insight into the higher members of
man's being; nor can a true comprehension of how we
arrive at aesthetic assessments. That is why the abstract
conclusions put forward by Kant and his followers have no
basis in reality. The experience of pure thinking is the first
step in modern clairvoyance. Unless instincts for the good
are brought into the light of consciousness, they do not
enter the stream of heredity. Only concepts based on
spiritual knowledge can produce effective solutions to legal,
moral and social questions.
Lecture VI July 10, 1917
To imagine self-knowledge to be simple is an illusion. The I
is complex; we encounter it as a shadowy picture in the
conceptual sphere. This picture is the seed of what will
become our I in the next life, as the seed in a plant will
become plant the following spring. It can be enriched if
man develops a sense for the hidden connection between
events. Example of the gypsy and Rousseau. The I which is
sought through the will works across from man's former life
on earth. By developing a sense for hidden karmic
connections, man can gain insight into life in the spiritual
 world before birth. Example of the meeting between
Bernstein and Stepniack just before the death of the latter.
Wrong comparisons lead to wrong conclusions. Example of
triangle and worm.
Lecture VII July 17, 1917
Man no longer experiences the Rubicon he crosses when in
his thirties the bodily forces begin to decline. This is
because his soul and spirit become independent from the
body at the age of 27. When the dependence lasted into
mature age, he grew naturally wise. The elders in ancient
India were super-geniuses. Now man does not grow wise
beyond the age of 27 unless he develops through his own
inner initiative. He remains at age 27 even if he lives to be a
hundred years old. This means he produces nothing that
can carry evolution forward into the future. A perfect
example of a brilliant personality who remained at a soul
age of 27 although he accomplished much is Lloyd George.
Just because he had no affinity with impulses stemming
from another age group, he became, as did others, a puppet
manipulated by individuals who possessed occult powers
through ancient impulses and traditions, powers which
brought about the 1914 world war.
Lecture VIII July 24, 1917
The importance of truth being experienced as a living
reality. Only now is the moment right for the revelation the
connection between the individual and the age of mankind.
The concepts of spiritual science establish a connection
with spiritual reality. Only what is in the process of
becoming is alive. The West suffers from a superstitious
belief in the printed word, in what has become detached
from man. This tendency has opened the door for evil
practices in certain quarters. Eastern Europe is preparing
the way, though as yet it has hardly begun, for true
individuality, for ethical individualism. Eastern, Central,
and Western Europe can only be understood if seen, not
only side by side in space, but in a historical sense following
one another.
 
Notes

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