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Anthroposophy in Everyday Life
Practical Training in Thought
Lesson 1.2.

Study Material for Course 1 Lesson 2

Lecture I of Anthroposophy in Everyday Life. Practical Training in Thought. A lecture by Rudolf Steiner given in Karlsruhe, Germany on January 18, 1909
Please study the following section of the lecture, then turn to the tasks and assignments listed below.

True practice in thinking presupposes a right attitude and proper feeling for thinking. How can a right attitude toward thinking be attained? Anyone who believes that thought is merely an activity that takes place within his head or in his soul cannot have the right feeling for thought. Whoever harbors this idea will be constantly diverted by a false feeling from seeking right habits of thought and from making the necessary demands on his thinking. He who would acquire the right feeling for thought must say to himself, “If I can formulate thoughts about things, and learn to understand them through thinking, then these things themselves must first have contained these thoughts. The things must have been built up according to these thoughts, and only because this is so can I in turn extract these thoughts from the things.”

It can be imagined that this world outside and around us may be regarded in the same way as a watch. The comparison between the human organism and a watch is often used, but those who make it frequently forget the most important point. They forget the watchmaker. The fact must be kept clearly in mind that the wheels have not united and fitted themselves together of their own accord and thus made the watch “go,” but that first there was the watchmaker who put the different parts of the watch together. The watchmaker must never be forgotten. Through thoughts the watch has come into existence. The thoughts have flowed, as it were, into the watch, into the thing.

The works and phenomena of nature must be viewed in a similar way. In the works of man it is easy to picture this to ourselves, but with the works of nature it is not so easily done. Yet these, too, are the result of spiritual activities and behind them are spiritual beings. Thus, when a man thinks about things he only re-thinks what is already in them. The belief that the world has been created by thought and is still ceaselessly being created in this manner is the belief that can alone fructify the actual inner practice of thought.

It is always the denial of the spiritual in the world that produces the worst kind of malpractice in thought, even in the field of science. Consider, for example, the theory that our planetary system arose from a primordial nebula that began to rotate and then densified into a central body from which rings and globes detached themselves, thus mechanically bringing into existence the entire solar system. He who propounds this theory is committing a grave error of thought.

A simple experiment used to be made in the schools to demonstrate this theory. A drop of oil was made to float in a glass of water. The drop was then pierced with a pin and made to rotate. As a result, tiny globules of oil were thrown off from the central drop creating a miniature planetary system, thus proving to the pupil — so the teacher thought — that this planetary system could come into existence through a purely mechanical process.

Only impractical thought can draw such conclusions from this little experiment, for he who would apply this theory to the cosmos has forgotten one thing that it ordinarily might be well to forget occasionally, and that is himself. He forgets that it is he who has brought this whole thing into rotation. If he had not been there and conducted the whole experiment, the separation of the little globules from the large drop would never have occurred. Had this fact been observed and applied logically to the cosmic system, he then would have been using complete healthy thinking. Similar errors of thought play a great part especially in science. Such things are far more important than one generally believes.

(Part 2. Practical Training in Thought. A lecture by Rudolf Steiner given in Karlsruhe, Germany on January 18, 1909)

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Course Outline

Course AEL1: Practical Training in Thought
Lesson 1: Introduction. Practical Thinking. Unpractical Thinking.
Lesson 2: Right Attitude and Proper Feeling for Thinking.
Lesson 3: Real Practice of Thought. Practical Exercises in Thinking I.
Lesson 4: Thinking through Observation.
Lesson 5: Practical Exercises in Thinking II.
Lesson 6: Practical Exercises in Thinking III. Example of a Practical Thinker.
Lesson 7: Practical Exercises in Thinking IV. Focused Thinking.
Lesson 8: Practical Exercises in Thinking V. Painting the Mental Picture.
Lesson 9: Practical Exercises in Thinking VI and VII. Arriving at Conclusions.
Lesson 10: Conclusions and Observations. How Thinking Changes.

    Submission Form for online courses AELPTT 1.2.

Tasks and Assignments for Lesson 1.2.

This section further introduces the study subject pointing out further examples of unpractical thinking thought of as practical thinking. Steiner touches on the materialistic or mechanical world view including the idea of the human being as a well functioning machine, and the age old question of who constructed this machine.

Concerning the natural world, the world that is spread out in front of us including all the phenomena of nature from the grassy fields, the animals, the air ... to the distant mountains and the seas ... we are made aware of the idea that also behind the natural world the world of the spirit is active at all times. Yes, that indeed the world is created by thought and is still ceaselessly being created in this manner ... just as the words that I am writing here or the words you may be writing as part of the assignments below are indeed creations of the thoughts that went into these words!


Please consider this section of the text and write down your thoughts and feelings concerning this section including answering the following questions or tasks.

1. What does Steiner mean with "right attitude and proper feeling for thinking"?

2. What is meant by the statement: "They forget the watchmaker?"

3. Comment on whether you see parallels in this text to today's discussions of "evolution versus creation".