The Consequences of Monism 241
- The content of this book is built on intuitive thinking
that can be experienced purely spiritually, and through
which every percept is placed within reality during the act
of cognition. No more was to be presented than can be
surveyed from an experience of intuitive thinking. But we
must also emphasize what kind of thought formation the
experience of thinking demands. It demands that intuitive
thinking not be denied as a self-sustaining experience
within the process of cognition. It also demands that we
acknowledge its capacity, in conjunction with percepts, to
experience reality, instead of seeking reality only in an in-
ferred world outside experience, in the face of which the
human activity of thinking would be merely subjective.
Here, then, thinking is characterized as the element
through which we, as human beings, enter spiritually into
reality (and no one should confuse this world view, based
on the experience of thinking, with a mere rationalism).
But, on the other hand, it follows from the whole spirit of
this portrayal that the element of perception can be con-
sidered as real for human cognition only if it is grasped in
thinking. The characterization of something as reality
cannot occuroutside thinking. Therefore, we should not
assume that sense perception is the only guarantee of re-
ality. We can onlywait forthe percepts that emerge in the
course of our lives. The only question is whether we can,
from the viewpoint of intuitively experienced thinking
alone,await perception not only of what is sensory, but
also of what is spiritual? We can indeed wait for this. For
even if,on one hand, intuitively experienced thinking is
an active process performed within the human spirit,on
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