The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Volume II: Preface

[ 1 ] Ernst Haeckel, to whom this book is dedicated, provided an answer to the question “What level of knowledge have we truly attained at the end of the nineteenth century?” from his point of view in his work “Die Welträtsel” (The Riddle of the Universe, Bonn 1899). This paper aims to show the path that worldview development has taken over the past century to reach the current level of knowledge. The reader will see that the author is not a fanatical adherent of the modern scientific creed, even though he reveres Ernst Haeckel as a monumental representative of modern thinking. What the scientific creed can be for us, and also where a view that takes into account the higher needs of the human spirit must go beyond this creed: I believe I have pointed this out in the same way in the course of my presentation. I have expressed my view of my task in the “Preface” to the first volume. If a reviewer of this volume finds that I have not achieved what I set out to do, namely that “my sharply defined worldview has not clouded my view of the thoughts of others, but rather sharpened it” [p. 10], I can respond by saying that some people believe they are describing things in a truly objective and historically accurate manner when they erase their own thoughts as much as possible. I do not share this opinion. I believe that it is only through one's own thoughts that one can fully understand those of others. The scope of what could be covered in this book could, of course, be defined differently than I have done. Some will seek something about Richard Wagner, others about Tolstoy. I had to set limits that may seem arbitrary to some, and that only those who fully understand my intentions will find justified.

Berlin, October 1900.
Rudolf Steiner.