Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism (from {{Latin|transcendere "to transcend") is one of the seven worldview moods that Rudolf Steiner distinguished and assigned to the seven planetary spheres. Transcendentalism corresponds to the Mercury sphere.

„Now the soul can be so tuned that it cannot become aware of that which rises up within it and which looks like the actual inner solution of the riddles of the world, but a soul can be so tuned that it says to itself: Yes, in the world there is something behind all things, as behind my own beingness, so far as I perceive this beingness. But I cannot be a mystic. The mystic believes that this flows into his soul. I do not feel it flowing into my soul; I only feel that it must be there, outside. - In this mood of the soul, one presupposes that outside our soul and outside what our soul can experience, there is the essence of things; but one does not presuppose that this essence of things can enter into the soul itself, as the mystic presupposes. If one presupposes that behind everything there is still something which one cannot reach in perception, then one is - this is perhaps the best word for it - a transcendentalist. One assumes that the essence of things is transcendent, that it does not enter the soul, as the mystic assumes. So: transcendentalism. The mood of the transcendentalist is such that he has the feeling: When I perceive things, the essence of things comes to me; only the perception itself is not this essence. The essence is behind it, but it comes up to the human being.“ (Lit.:GA 151, p. 56)

See also

• Transcendentalism - Article in the English Wikipedia

Literature

• Rudolf Steiner: Der menschliche und der kosmische Gedanke, GA 151 (1990), ISBN 3-7274-1510-X English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org

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