Humanity has steadily continued to develop its moral consciousness over the past centuries – solidarity, respect for others, human dignity, equality, environmental protection, and pacifism… However, it seems that there is still a huge gulf between these moral ideals and the reality of the world – a reality still marked by division, exclusion, poverty, environmental degradation, oppression, and war...
How can we overcome this gulf? This question points us to the forces that human beings use to shape the world. Since the beginning of the modern age, people have drawn their most essential resources for changing their environment with rational thought. This thinking has proved breathtakingly efficient and has enabled unparalleled progress. It is based on a mechanical understanding of reality: the law of cause and effect found in the external world. But is such thinking enough to overcome the gulf?
It seems that a new way of thinking is needed. A form of cognition that is not only a faithful reproduction of external processes but is also able to add something to them. Creative knowledge that is able to overcome the inexorable mechanics of reality and allow something new to emerge – a cognition that is also practical, but whose practice involves not only mechanics but also art. Anthroposophy offers an invitation to such a creative consciousness and creative technique. A living science that can change the world in a humane but also efficient way.
Translation Christian von Arnim
Image Water weaving [Wasser am weben], Gabriela Karpuch, 2021
