We should not believe that when we develop the intellect, we also develop the spiritual in man
On July 21, 2023 By Ridzerd
The intellect is as yet the most spiritual in us; however, if we develop it unilaterally, feeling and will not with it, then we always develop a tendency towards materialistic thinking. Although the intellect in us is the most spiritual during the physical life of the earth, this intellect in us has the tendency towards materialism. For we must not believe that when we develop the intellect, we also develop the spiritual in man. As contradictory as it sounds, it is true: we only develop in man the ability to understand the material by developing his intellect.
Only because we develop his feeling, his emotional life in a tasteful, aesthetic way, only then do we point the intellect of man to the spiritual. And it is only through the practice of will-education, even if this will-education is done by outward manual dexterity, that we lay in man the basis for directing the mind to the spirit. If so few people today tend to direct the intellect to the spirit, it is due to the fact that the will was so wrongly schooled during childhood.
How we learn, as a teacher, to properly educate the will? I have already pointed this out recently: We learn it by letting the child be active in art above all else; that we do not just let the child hear and see music, drawings, paintings as early as possible, but let them participate as far as possible.
Source (German): Rudolf Steiner – GA 297 – Idee und Praxis der Waldorfschule – Stuttgart, 31 August 1919 (page 60)
Translated by Google and DeepL
On July 21, 2023 By Ridzerd
The intellect is as yet the most spiritual in us; however, if we develop it unilaterally, feeling and will not with it, then we always develop a tendency towards materialistic thinking. Although the intellect in us is the most spiritual during the physical life of the earth, this intellect in us has the tendency towards materialism. For we must not believe that when we develop the intellect, we also develop the spiritual in man. As contradictory as it sounds, it is true: we only develop in man the ability to understand the material by developing his intellect.
Only because we develop his feeling, his emotional life in a tasteful, aesthetic way, only then do we point the intellect of man to the spiritual. And it is only through the practice of will-education, even if this will-education is done by outward manual dexterity, that we lay in man the basis for directing the mind to the spirit. If so few people today tend to direct the intellect to the spirit, it is due to the fact that the will was so wrongly schooled during childhood.
How we learn, as a teacher, to properly educate the will? I have already pointed this out recently: We learn it by letting the child be active in art above all else; that we do not just let the child hear and see music, drawings, paintings as early as possible, but let them participate as far as possible.
Source (German): Rudolf Steiner – GA 297 – Idee und Praxis der Waldorfschule – Stuttgart, 31 August 1919 (page 60)
Translated by Google and DeepL
Art of Arild Rosenkrantz
THANKS TO: https://rudolfsteinerquotes.wordpress.com/2023/07/21/we-should-not-believe-that-when-we-develop-the-intellect-we-also-develop-the-spiritual-in-man/