The Value of Thinking

11 lectures, Dornach, August 20 and September 17 – October 9, 1915 (CW 164)

“As soon as you start thinking about the living sphere, you have to make the thought itself mobile. The thought must begin to gain inner mobility through your own power.” — Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Steiner divides these absorbing, previously untranslated lectures into three sections. Opening with the value of thinking, he discusses the quality of thinking itself, contrasting “dead physical cognition,” “living imaginative cognition,” and “inspired cognition,” as well as the connection between inspired cognition and previous periods of human and planetary development. He clarifies how visionary clairvoyance can relate to individual intelligence, and discusses the submergence of ideas—the effects of sad or joyful experiences and feelings—in the unconscious, which can promote or inhibit life.

In the second part, Steiner speaks about the relationship between spiritual science and natural science, using a contemporary publication as a case study on how texts can be analyzed fruitfully. He explains how the spiritual-scientific method allows facts or personalities to speak for themselves rather than making personal judgements.

Finally, Steiner deliberates on episodic observations on space, time, and movement—kinetic formulas and concepts such as the speed of light—while also introducing notions such as light ether directly from his own spiritual observations.

These lectures are supplemented with an introduction by the translator, comprehensive notes, line drawings, and an index.

This book was translated from the German volume, Der Wert des Denkens für eine den Menschen befriedigende Erkenntnis. Das Verhältnis der Geisteswissenschaft zu Naturwissenschaft (GA 164).