Man

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Leonardo da Vinci: The Vitruvian Man, Proportion Study after Vitruvius, 1492

Man (Sanskrit: मनुष Manushya; Hebrew: אֱנוֹשׁ Enosch; Greek: ἄνθρωπος anthropos, from anti and tropos, literally: "the one turned towards"; German: Mensch) is, from a spiritual-scientific point of view, the general term for that cosmic stage of evolution on which a being develops its I and its self-awareness, and in doing so rises from being a mere creature to becoming a creator. We are now called on Earth to attain this level of development. Other beings have reached this stage of evolution before us, and others will follow after us.

In the course of his evolution, the human being passes through repeated earth lives, between which he leads a purely soul-spiritual existence in the life between death and new birth. Humans today lives on Earth as homo sapiens (Latin: the "clever, understanding, wise, sapient, gifted with sense"). They are considered evolutionarily and anatomical in biological systematics as the only living species of the genus homo of the family of hominids (Latin: hominidae), which belongs to the order of primates.

Goethe had already pointed out the morphological relationship between humans and the higher animals, which Charles Darwin, the founder of modern evolutionary theory, also appreciated. Unlike Darwin and his successors, however, Goethe also saw the fundamental difference between humans and animals, which for him, however, was not rooted in anatomical details but in the totality of the mental and spiritual abilities of humans.

Goethe's views were further deepened by Rudolf Steiner. From an anthroposophical point of view, the human being is not exhausted in the sensually visible material body, but also has higher, only super-sensually perceptible bodily, soul and spiritual members. What at first appears to the clairvoyant gaze as a multiplicity, however, forms a unity for higher cognition (Lit.:GA 7, p. 112), through which the I of man, i.e. his spiritual individuality, can unfold.

Literatur
References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com.
Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books
A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works
Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English.
Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold
steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA)
Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.
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