"Let us assume, let us really assume, that in fifty years everything has to be corrected, that no stone of our spiritual edifice, as the things are currently presented, is left standing; that in the next fifty years occult research would have to rectify everything from the ground up; - then this would only be characterized by me in such a way that I would say: That may well be, but at least one thing would remain of what we have here attempted to do, and this one thing remains the central striving of our Western theosophical movement. - That people could say: there existed a theosophical movement, which in the field of occultism did not want to bring forth anything else except what had been engendered out of the purest and most unadulterated sense for truth. Our endeavor is of such a nature that one could hopefully at least utter this once." (lecture in Cologne; GA 143, p. 175).
Public Talk Stuttgart Technical College, 20 June 1920:
“And consider what I myself have said today: there may be various errors in the details, but it is a question of pointing out a new direction. It is not the case that every single detail has to be absolutely correct. […] For the truth does not actually consist in a mere external justification of agreement, but above all also in a justification in its inner substantiality. To be sure, everyone can verify this. And I have never asserted anything else than someone who says that one can learn the spiritual-scientific methods, just as one can learn the methods of chemistry. However, when the things have been researched, then they can be checked by every thinking person. And thus, whatever I say or write or have written from the standpoint of spiritual science can be checked by every thinking person. Certainly various errors will be found, that is only natural, but that is exactly like in other fields of research. It is not a matter of the isolated errors, but rather it is a question of the fundamental character of the whole.”
(Rudolf Steiner, public talk at the Technical College in Stuttgart, 20 June 1920, GA 73a, 2005, p. 412f.)
Rudolf Steiner, excerpt from a letter, 14 May 1904 letter, from London, to Doris and Franz Paulus, in Stuttgart. Here Steiner is speaking about one of his own past lives or incarnations. He says that mistakes could be possible in this domain of spiritual observation, but that he considers his insight in this particular case to be a “justified belief”. He also asks the recipients of the letter to treat this communication about his past life as “critically as possible”.
“I will now turn to your questions, dear Frau Doctor. If I were not an esotericist and standing in the spiritual life, I would have perhaps said: your questions in Stuttgart and later on by letter had astonished me. But through the above-mentioned traits I was fully prepared for the knowledge of your profound psychological insight. I can only tell you: that you have good psychic gifts, and this is just as fine a precondition for spiritual knowledge as for working from the spiritual planes into the physical world. What you experience simply shows that you have a connection to the world’s spiritual powers, and your whole nature just shows that you are called on to apply these spiritual gifts in a noble way to help people. Among other things, you have repeatedly asked me who I might be. A time for us to discuss this subject will perhaps also come. Today I will just tell you that I am justified in believing: you once did me a really great service in a former life. Do not misunderstand me. Even in spiritual observations mistakes are of course not ruled out. But I am not a person to live in illusions. In spiritual realms I am among those considered cautious (vorsichtig), and perhaps even ‘down-to-earth’ (nüchtern). I may therefore speak of a justified belief (von berechtigtem Glauben). […] These are indications which I ask you to accept as critically as possible; but I can only tell you that I hold them with reason as fully justified. (Das sind Andeutungen, die ich Sie bitte so kritisch wie möglich aufzunehmen; aber ich kann Ihnen nur sagen, daß ich sie mit Grund für vollberechtigt halte.) (Translated letter cited in: Crispian Villeneuve: “Rudolf Steiner in Britain: A Documentation of His Ten Visits, 1902-25, Volume 1”, pp. 77-78 (translation slightly modified by DW).
German original:
"Nun wende ich mich zu Ihren Fragen, liebe Frau Doktor. Wäre ich nicht Esoteriker und stünde ich nicht im spirituellen Leben, so würde ich vielleicht sagen: Ihre Fragen in Stuttgart und später die brieflichen haben mich überrascht. Aber durch die genannten Eigenschaften war ich für die Erkenntnis Ihres tiefen psychologischen Blickes voll vorbereitet. Ich kann Ihnen nur sagen: Sie haben gute psychische Gaben und eine schöne Vorbedingung sowohl zur spirituellen Erkenntnis wie auch zum Wirken in der physischen Welt von den spirituellen Plänen aus. Was Sie erleben, zeigt einfach, daß Sie Verbindung haben mit den spirituellen Mächten der Welt, und Ihre ganze Art zeigt wieder, daß Sie berufen sind, diese geistigen Gaben in edler Art zur Hilfe für die Menschen anzuwenden. Sie fragten mich u.a. wiederholt, wer ich sei. Es wird wohl auch die Zeit kommen, in der wir darüber sprechen können. Doch heute will ich Ihnen nur sagen, daß ich Berechtigung zu dem Glauben habe: Sie haben mir selbst in einem früheren Leben einmal einen recht großen Dienst geleistet. Mißverstehen Sie mich nicht. Irrtümer sind natürlich auch bei spirituellen Beobachtungen nicht ausgeschlossen. Ich bin aber kein Mensch, der in Illusionen lebt. Ich bin auf den spirituellen Feldern einer derjenigen, die man vorsichtig, und wohl auch «nüchtern» nennt. Deshalb darf ich von berechtigtem Glauben sprechen. […] Das sind Andeutungen, die ich Sie bitte so kritisch wie möglich aufzunehmen; aber ich kann Ihnen nur sagen, daß ich sie mit Grund für vollberechtigt halte." Rudolf Steiner an Doris und Franz Paulus in Stuttgart, London, 14. Mai 1904; GA 264: GA 264: 55-56).
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Some related reflections by Rudolf Steiner on error and mistakes:
* On being mistaken, error, and the power of the true, from Steiner's book Theosophy (1904). Interestingly, and curiously, passages from the chapter on knowledge in this book are often taken out of context and distorted into their opposite by certain critics and interpreters, to claim or suggest that Steiner is here saying he is infallible and one should never doubt, or only blindly believe, what he says: "If he (the knowledge seeker) should answer, 'Then I am forced to have blind faith to begin with,' one can only reply, 'In regard to something communicated it is not a case of belief or unbelief, but merely of an unprejudiced assimilation of what one hears.' The true spiritual researcher never speaks with the expectation of meeting blind faith in what he says. He merely says, 'I have experienced this in the spiritual regions of existence and I narrate my experiences.' He knows also that the reception of these experiences by another and the permeation of his thoughts with such an account are living forces making for spiritual development. (…) One may not say, 'Of what use to me are the resolutions to follow purely the laws of the true when I am perhaps mistaken concerning what is true?' The important thing is the striving, and the spirit in which one strives. Even when the seeker is mistaken, he possesses, in his very striving for the true, a force that turns him away from the wrong road. Should he be mistaken, this force seizes him and guides him to the right road. The very objection, 'But I may be mistaken', is itself harmful unbelief. It shows that the man has no confidence in the power of the true." (R. Steiner, Theosophy, 1904, chapter: The Path of Knowledge, trans. H.B. Monges).
* Some related methodological reflections from Steiner on being aware of hidden assumptions and of learning to ask the right questions in research. This is from 1892, from the small book Truth and Science (Wahrheit und Wissenschaft). Interestingly, Steiner already mentions in passing Aristotle here, as well as the great Rosicrucian esotericist Raymond Lull:
"It is striking that such hidden assumptions are usually made at the outset, when the fundamental problems of epistemology are formulated. But if the essential problems of a science are misstated, the right solution is unlikely to be forthcoming. The history of science shows that whole epochs have suffered from innumerable mistakes which can be traced to the simple fact that certain problems were wrongly formulated. To illustrate this, we need not go back as far as Aristotle's physics, or Raymond Lull's Ars Magna; there are plenty of more recent examples. For instance, innumerable problems concerning the purpose of rudimentary organs of certain organisms could only be rightly formulated when the condition for doing so had first been created through the discovery of the fundamental law of biogenesis. While biology was influenced by teleological views, the relevant problems could not be formulated in a way which could lead to a satisfactory answer. For example, what fantastic ideas were entertained concerning the function of the pineal gland in the human brain, as long as the emphasis was on its purpose! Then comparative anatomy threw some light on the matter by asking a different question; instead of asking what the organ was “for,” inquiry began as to whether, in man, it might be merely a remnant from a lower level of evolution. Another example: how many physical questions had to be modified after the discovery of the laws of the mechanical equivalent of heat and of conservation of energy! In short, success in scientific research depends essentially on whether the problems can be formulated rightly." (GA 3)
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From a report by Friedrich Rittelmeyer. Here Steiner says that had to correct errors in some first impressions and results, and that he had also occasionally been mistaken about certain people:
"When Dr. Steiner came to Nuremberg (in 1913), at the beginning of the winter, I had a great many questions to ask him. (…) Dr. Steiner never asked for agreement. He simply told and left it to produce its own effect. Sometimes it may have happened that, astonished by the assurance in his answers, I asked him: 'Have you really never been mistaken in your investigations and been obliged to correct them afterwards?' - 'I have never spoken of what I wasn't quite sure of,' he said. Still I was not satisfied. - 'I mean, have you not on closer scrutiny had to correct your first impressions and results of research?' - 'Yes, but then there is always an obvious reason for it. For instance, if I meet you in a fog and do not recognise you, the fog itself is a factor which must then be taken into account.' Still I would not give way. 'Has it never happened that you had to admit afterwards: 'I was wrong there?' He thought quietly for a minute or two. 'Well, yes,' he said, 'in human beings I have sometimes been deceived. But after all, with people, something from outer life will often creep in that one cannot foresee.' Friedrich Rittelmeyer, Rudolf Steiner Enters My Life, Part 2.
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And a concluding thought from J.W. von Goethe:
“The errors of a man actually make him lovable.”
(Die Irrtümer des Menschen machen ihn eigentlich liebenswürdig). Maximen and Reflexionen, 1826, no. 1046; HA 12, p. 513).
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