"People vary greatly in their capacity for intuition. In one, ideas just bubble up; another acquires them with much labor. The situations in which people live and which provide the scenes of their actions are no less varied. The conduct of a person will therefore depend on the manner in which one's faculty of intuition works in a given situation. The sum of ideas which are effective in us, the concrete content of our intuitions, constitutes what is individual in each of us, notwithstanding the universality of the world of ideas.
In so far as this intuitive content applies to action, it constitutes the moral content of the individual. To let this content express itself in life is both the highest moral driving force and the highest motive a person can have [i.e. Resolve] who sees that in this content all other moral principles are in the end united. We may call this point of view ethical individualism..."
The fore-going is from Rudolf Steiner's ...freedom philosophy...known as 'Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path: A Philosophy of Freedom'...a central paragraph within chapter 9 entitled "The Idea of Freedom". translation by Michael Wilson. I have taken the liberty to insert 'people' or 'person' where Michael had used 'man'. This is my personal choice of meaning.
commentary: In my blog, one field of my endeavors is to relate the principles of Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophy to the very same principles inherent in the ancient Wisdom of Chinese TAO. To assume that the Wisdom of the ancients is past, is a false assumption...in my view.
The TAO within is an ever-evolving...ever dynamic but silent inner power...it is our essential-self.
In this and the following blog posting, I have chosen several of Steiner's quotes to express some qualities of TE as dwelt upon by Lao Tzu in his world-known Tao Te Ching. TE means the virtuous or ethical qualities of human action.
Is not Steiner's concept 'ethical individualism' just this?....a dynamic state of being where-by an individualized, human-in-balance allows a flowing into practical action as a free spirit [love for the action], his or her highest and best Moral Self...and in doing so, bridging heaven and earth....actualizing universal spiritual ideas in practical life...striving step-by-step to re-unify and heal some small part of what has been torn away by our human frailty from the Great TAO through our own incarnations as individuals, as peoples, as a whole humanity?
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