256 Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path
time from the immediate impressions of life and enter
the world of pure thought.
The realms of life are many. For each, specific scienc-
es develop. But life itself is a unity, and the more the sci-
ences busily immerse themselves in separate realms, the
farther they move away from seeing the living wholeness
of the world. There must be a kind of knowing that seeks,
in the separate sciences, the elements that lead human
beings back to full life again. A scientific specialist
wants to become aware of the world and how it works
through his or her insights. In this book, the goal is philo-
sophical: science itself is to become organically alive.
The separate sciences are preludes to the science attempt-
ed here. A similar relationship obtains in the arts. A com-
poser works on the basis of compositional theory, which
is a sum of all that one needs to know before one can com-
pose. In composing, the laws of composition serve life,
serve reality. In just the same way, philosophy is an art.
All real philosophers have beenartists in concepts. For
them, human ideas have become artistic materials and
scientific methods have become artistic technique. There-
by, abstract thinking attains concrete, individual life.
Ideas become powers of life. Then we not merely know
about things, but have made knowing into a real, self-
governing organism. Our active, real consciousness has
lifted itself above mere passive reception of truths.
How philosophy as an art relates to humanfreedom,
what freedom is, and whether we do, or can, participate in
it—this is the principal theme of my book. All other sci-
entific discussions are included only because, in the end,
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