Rethinking the Nature of Substance

Under Construction!!

Glossary: Moral Philosophy

John Stuart Mill by G. F. Watts

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This is very much a work in progress. All of these definitions are provisional and will be worked on and improved during the writing of the book. Feedback on the definitions would be especially welcome.

Moral Philosophy

The study and understanding of human based actions. It is used here in the sense of the German word Geisteswissenschaft. The German word was originally a translation of the English word moral philosophy. It was later used in the sense of sciences of mind to describe the work of the human sciences, the humanities, or liberal arts departments in academia. Rudolf Steiner used it in its literal sense of spiritual science. Although our brains may be material entities, our minds are non-material and therefore spiritual. These meanings are conserved in the German word Geist. Therefore, because all academic studies involve human minds, and have been shown to be social activities, I have included both alchemy and the physical sciences here. For further details see the individual entries below. [See Gadamer Truth and Method and note in Steiner’s Die Philosophie der Freiheit.]

  • Academic
    • The word academic originates from name for Plato’s Academy, an institution of higher learning. To ensure the quality of education and research, standards are generally set. Since the 18th century academic researchers have published their results in peer reviewed journals. This peer review process involves the evaluation of one’s work by other academics studying the same subject. If an academic’s work is not trusted or believed they will not be published in a respected, mainstream journal. Mainstream is often used as a synonym for academic. The philosopher (see philosophy) Thomas, Kuhn in his 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, showed how this generates a conservative attitude to new or different scientific (science) or philosophical paradigms. This includes the biological transmutation (see transmutation, biological) phenomenon and the ideas of Rudolf Steiner. See Chapters 1-2, 4, 6-14, 21.
  • Alchemy
    • Alchemy is the art of transformation … how to change one thing into another, and the goal of alchemy is to perfect or evolve the substance at hand… The word alchemy derives from the Arabic phrase Al-Khemia… Khem describes the fertile black soil found in the Nile River delta… Our word chemistry… derives from the same root… Hauk (2008). See Chapters …
  • Anthroposophy
    • Anthroposophy was developed by Rudolf Steiner … as ‘a path of knowledge to guide the spiritual in the human being to the spiritual in the universe’. Starting from his insight that thinking is a spiritual activity, Steiner showed how we can extend our scientific consciousness to embrace a knowledge of the spiritual dimension of existence. The outcome is a science of the spirit capable of providing us with the ability to comprehend the spiritual as well as the physical nature of life, and to recognise the importance of this knowledge for the future of humanity. https://www.anthroposophy.org.uk/pdf/membership.pdf . See Chapter 16.
    • See people for details of notable anthroposophists of interest for this book, including: George Adams, Stephan Baumgartner, Rudolph Hauschka, Ernst Lehrs, Ernst Marti, Nick Thomas, Georg Unger, Olive Whicher.
  • Biodynamics
    • “A holistic, ecological, and ethical approach to farming, gardening, food, and nutrition … rooted in the work of … Rudolf Steiner … [His] 1924 lectures to farmers opened a new way to integrate scientific understanding with a recognition of spirit in nature.” https://www.biodynamics.com/what-is-biodynamics.
  • Philosophy [Requires rethinking and rewriting]
    • The love (or pursuit) of wisdom. In order to limit the scope of the book what is included here is Western philosophy. The holistic worldviews of Eastern philosophies have been promoted in many publications in recent decades, however the Western tradition, given here, is little known. Diogenes Laërtius divided it into three parts:
    • Physis is the part concerned with the universe and all that it contains [I have limited it to physical, material entities, both inorganic (dead) and living organisms, see entry below];
    • Moral philosophy (ethics); that concerned with life and all that has to do with us [I have limited it to concern free human deeds, see entry below].
    • Dialectics and logic; the processes of reasoning employed by both …
    • To this list I have added both metaphysics (what things are; see entry below); and knowledge (epistemology, the study of how we know things; see entry below).
  • Science [The following account requires a rethink and rewrite! I need to account for that which is common to all scientific approaches, as well as how they differ….]
    • “Science is too diverse, too protean, to be captured in full by a definition.” Ziman (2000: pp. 12 ff.) It is concerned with the acquisition of knowledge, however, the means of that acquisition and the criteria for its acceptance as science are highly controversial. Gauchy (2003: pp. 28 – 42) proposed the following four principles for the guidance of academic science:
      • Biology; The study of living organisms… See physis, life.
      • Physics;
        • Particle; In atomic and sub-atomic physics the word ‘particle’ is particularly confusing. In everyday language a particle is a very small piece of solid matter (i.e. larger than an atom). However, physicists use the word in its purely mathematical sense—it is an Ideal (see Ideal form) (materially non-existent), zero dimensional (infinitesimally small) point—a mere mathematical convenience to locate any entity in space without any reference to what that entity may or may not be!
  • Science, Aristotelian
    • [See Ziguras (2011) for the connection between Goethean and Aristotelian science and the difference between the processes of knowing and explanation; see also apodicticity – from Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics…].
  • Goethean Science; Goethe considered himself to be an observer of nature. He believed that by means of a series of meticulous observations, conducted in a systematic manner, as well as from a wide variety of perspectives, true and certain knowledge could be attained. …
    • [See Steiner’s ‘The Science of Knowing’ GA2, A.3. The Task of Science; pp. 18 ff.]
  • Sciences;

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