Goethean Science (2): Colour Theory

In the first chapter of this investigation, we set forth the following aphorism from Goethe: The highest were to grasp that everything phenomenal is already noumenal. The blue of the heavens proclaim the principle of colour-theory. A man should not look past the phenomena, but allow himself to be instructed by them. [1] We suggested…

Goethean Science (1): Introduction and an Evaluation of Methods and Principles

Introduction     Socrates notoriously cautioned against the seductive power of the written word, which was the ape of wise discourse but was itself but a dumb idol:  ….the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not; They have ears, but they hear not; neither is…

A brief meditation on whether one was preset at the birth of the physical universe

An Hermetic Ascent (with an assumption of the cosmology of contemporary physics): My birth certificate affirms that I was not born until 1988 and that was less than 13.8 billion years ago. But I wonder what the birth certificate means exactly. My body certainly doesn’t consist of the same particles as ostensibly constellated on that…

Seelenkalender I

“Calendar of the Soul”—Rudolf Steiner’s 52 Verses for the Year ∇ First Week of the Year ∆ Below is Dr Steiner’s original verse followed by my translations into English and Swedish. —Osterstimmung— Wenn aus den Weltenweiten Die Sonne spricht zum Menschensinn Und Freude aus den Seelentiefen Dem Licht sich eint im Schauen, Dann ziehen aus…

Throwing Down the Gauntlet (8): Conclusion and Vision Manifold

The question of morality brings us to the apex of our consideration. The hard problem of consciousness is not merely a quibble for academics to perennially organise conferences around. Instead it is an expression of the deepest spiritual questions of our age, which no “single vision” has the faintest hope of adequately addressing. And twofold…

Throwing Down the Gauntlet (7): D. Dennet, T. Metzinger on the Hard Problem of Consciousness, and a Call for a Science of Sciences

“We’re all zombies. No one is conscious,” Dennett boldly asserted in his 1992 work Consciousness Explained. In his 2017 work From Bacteria to Bach and Back, Dennett reveals that the philosophical ferment which Chalmers’ formulation of “the hard problem” of consciousness initiated, has done little to alter his position. In the book, Dennett contrasts two…

Throwing Down the Gauntlet on the Hard Problem of Consciousness (6): The Philosophy of Science

Thus far, we have attempted to demonstrate that the contemporary failure to adequately explain qualia is not a quirk or an accident. Rather, it follows from the meaning of the terms in which the hard problem of consciousness itself is articulated. The latter are in turn derived straight from the ontology that modern physics has…

Throwing Down the Gauntlet on the Hard Problem of Consciousness (5): Sunrise of the Idols

As the reader likely gather from the prior section, classical Aristotelian physics, or natural philosophy, contrasts with modern physics in the tradition of Galileo, Bacon and Descartes in a manner far deeper than a superficial consideration can reveal. One must in fact conclude that, in some essential sense, classical physics and modern physics are undertaking…

Throwing Down the Gauntlet on the Hard Problem of Consciousness (4): The Grand Instauration

Newton, as we have mentioned, represented the archetypal modern physicist. [1] In this manner, he was heir to the revolution in the sciences inaugurated by Galileo and Bacon, who were the Romulus and Remus of the “Great Instauration.” [2] Though Bacon was its chief advocate, Galileo was the first to developed and rigorously employ the…

Throwing Down the Gauntlet on the Hard Problem of Consciousness (3): The Physics of Natural Philosophy

In the 4th century B.C., Aristotle had delineated four causes—material, efficient, formal, and final—which he believed together could encompass the necessary conditions for a given phenomenon.* Evidently, “cause” in this sense transcends the common usage of that term, which today refers only to the efficient one in Aristotle’s more comprehensive conception. In this respect, Aristotle’s…

Throwing Down the Gauntlet (2): The Hard Problem in History

The hard problem of consciousness by no means sprang forth fully armed from the minds of contemporary philosophers. Neither Chalmers nor Nagel is the first thinker to pose the question of how immaterial perceptions relate to material objects. Indeed, Chalmers’ formulation adopts essentially the same metaphysical underpinnings that Descartes set forth in the seventeenth century….

Throwing Down the Gauntlet on the Hard Problem of Consciousness (1): Introduction to “the Issue”

The philosopher Martin Heidegger famously defined the human being as the one whose “own being is an issue for it.” Heidegger’s definition, at once apodeictic and ambiguous, manages to capture the basic paradox of self-knowledge that is the crux of philosophy and the human condition itself. Aristotle famously defined sophia (σοφία) as the union of…

Calendar of the Soul LII

SEELENKALENDER “Calendar of the Soul”—Rudolf Steiner’s 52 Verses for the Year ∇ Fifty-second Week of the Year ∆ Below is Dr Steiner’s original verse followed by my translation into English. Wenn aus den Seelentiefen Der Geist sich wendet zu dem Weltensein Und Schönheit quillt aus Raumesweiten, Dann zieht aus Himmelsfernen Des Lebens Kraft in Menschenleiber…

Calendar of the Soul LI

SEELENKALENDER “Calendar of the Soul”—Rudolf Steiner’s 52 Verses for the Year ∇ Fifty-first Week of the Year ∆ Below is Dr Steiner’s original verse followed by my translation into English. Ins Innre des Menschenwesens Ergiesst der Sinne Reichtum sich. Es findet sich der Weltengeist Im Spiegelbild des Menschenauges, Das seine Kraft aus ihm Sich neu…

Calendar of the Soul L

SEELENKALENDER “Calendar of the Soul”—Rudolf Steiner’s 52 Verses for the Year ∇ Fiftieth Week of the Year ∆ Below is Dr Steiner’s original verse followed by my translation into English. Es spricht zum Menschen-Ich, Sich machtvoll offenbarend Und seines Wesens Kräfte lösend, Des Weltendaseins Werdelust: In dich mein Leben tragend Aus seinem Zauberbanne, Erreiche ich…

Calendar of the Soul XLIX

SEELENKALENDER “Calendar of the Soul”—Rudolf Steiner’s 52 Verses for the Year ∇ Forty-ninth Week of the Year ∆ Below is Dr Steiner’s original verse followed by my translation into English. Ich fühle Kraft des Weltenseins: So spricht Gedankenklarheit, Gedenkend eignen Geistes Wachsen In finstern Weltennächten, Und neigt dem nahen Weltentage Des Innern Hoffnungsstrahlen. ∇∆ The…