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I have just edited a footnote relating to the third chapter for the Outline of Book. Since it directly relates to my previous post I thought I would post a further edited version here.
Chapter 3: Moral Philosophy
World-outlook mood – Mysticism – Inward seeking for divine – Reflect: (thinking) Turn inward to explore inner experiences and uncover deeper truths that are not accessible through external observation.
In which I move out of my comfort zone! Plato and Aristotle took thinking as far as they could. So what of our doings? How do we live a good life? Plotinus and Late Classical philosophy – theological developments – Christian scholastic developments lead to nominalism, mechanistic science. Science leads to mathematical developments and eventually projective geometry (see Part III of this book).
Rudolf Steiner has written on the subject in several of his works: Goethe’s World View (Goethes Weltanschauung), GA 006; Riddles of Philosophy; (Die Rätsel der Philosophie), GA 018; The Boundaries of Natural Science GA 322; and I am sure that he and others will provide further guidance, especially Max Leyf. For background guidance, Wikipedia and the English and German editions of the excellent AnthroWiki.
[From memory,] Joe Sachs has written of how the original meaning of ousia, which was thinghood – that which makes a thing something special, its spiritual essence, by analogy with knighthood – became substance, something which lies under and not above. Spiritual entities after Augustine were reserved exclusively for heavenly beings, not earthly things. Since starting this project it has become my wish to reinstate everyday material entities to return them to being something special. Imagine the joy experienced by the prisoner who escaped from the darkness of Plato’s cave – with its two-dimensional shadow world – into a light illuminated world possessing an extra dimension of ideal spiritual form. This is what early Christianity attempted to replace, not by adding a new dimension to the illuminated realm above the dark cave, but by creating an even darker basement where scientific investigations can take place. The spirit of Nature was translated into sub-stantia, that which stands beneath.
However, Rudolf Steiner indicated that such events enabled humanity to develop in new ways. Materialism was important as part of a process, as a means to enable more positive ends, though not as an end in itself.
Thus Nature was deprived of her higher spirit. This deprivation enabled the natural sciences to develop materialistically. Apparently this was an important part of a process – a means to enable more positive ends. It enabled a quantitative science to develop which encouraged the further development of mathematics. Eventually, towards the end of the nineteenth century, it had reached the point when projective geometry was able to model (at least in principle) the holistic natural worldview of Plato, Aristotle, Goethe and Steiner. Literally, just in time for Rudolf Steiner. Plato famously wrote above the entrance to his academy, “Let no one ignorant of geometry enter“. The geo-metry (literally “Earth measurement”) of Euclid was not sufficient for spiritual scientific investigations.
I have a strong feeling that my limited (and sceptical) understanding of spiritual realms will change during the course of my research. Plato’s belief in The One, the Form of the Good, described as an illuminating light by Plotinus, apparently guided theologians and philosophers of Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Whether or not I have faith in such things, such spiritual beliefs have had a huge influence on the development of even the mechanistic sciences. They are worthy of study. Steiner’s teachings in his above named books and lectures, as well as the mysteries written of in Christianity as Mystical Fact has already helped me.
Even Max Planck, the founder of quantum theory (the mathematical description of a strange sub-natural realm which is inexplicable to classical physics – see Chapter 14), has spoken openly about his belief in higher powers;
… so we must hypothesize a deliberate intelligent spirit behind this force [the force which causes both the universe and the atom to hold together]. This spirit is the foundation of all matter. A visible but not corruptible matter is real, true, authentic, because matter without the spirit cannot be — but the invisible, immortal Spirit is the reality! Also since a spirit cannot exist by itself, but every spirit belongs to an entity, we are forced to assume that there exist spiritual beings. However, since spirit beings cannot come into being by themselves, but must be created, so I am not shy to designate this mysterious creator, as him, whom all civilizations of the earth have called in earlier millennia: God! In this, the physicist, in dealing with the subject matter of the will, must travel from the kingdom of the substance to the realm of the Spirit. And so that is our task in the end, and we must place our research in the hands of philosophy.
Max Planck (in Das Wesen der Materie, a 1944 speech in Florence, Italy), quoted by Sarah Salviander (2015).
Rethinking the Nature of Substance 
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