Download the article: Thoughts on the Idea of Evolution
compiled by Arthur Auer
from the writings of Wolfgang Schad, Rudolf Steiner, Jos Verhulst, Hermann von Poppelbaum, and Martyn Rawson
Preparatory materials for discussing the question: Is the human being an animal? (with major implications for questions on human freedom and morality).
The Idea of Evolution in Pedagogy: Human Ancestors and the Development of Humanity
The discoveries [of the six million year old hominid orrorin tugensis and seven million year old sahelanthropos tschadensis] tell us that the shared and original ancestor of our close relatives the human-like apes and of human beings is, in fact, a mixed or combined form (Mischform). And this is indeed logical because the common primeval form (Urform) of this ancestor must have contained the potentiality for both directions of development. Both the lineage of apes and the lineage of humans arose out of this common ancestor’s potentiality. The ancestor apparently possessed not only the potential for both, but also the capacity to impart form to both (Formgebung).
These oldest of recent findings of early humanity fit the portrayal Rudolf Steiner has presented of the ancestors that apes and human have in common. He put forth the following analogy:
. . . [the separation of the animal forms was actually necessary to the human being. Each animal form which separated in bygone times from the general stream signifies that man had then progressed a step further. Imagine that all the qualities distributed throughout the animal kingdom were in the human being. He has purified himself from them. Through this man was able to develop further [Translator)]. If we take a muddy liquid and allow the gross matter in it to settle to the bottom, the finer part remains at the top. In the same way the grosser parts which man would have been unable to use for his present condition of development have been deposited like a sediment in the animal forms. Through man having cast out of his line of development these animal forms— his elder brothers, as it were—he has reached his present height. GA 104, The Apocalypse of St. John, Lecture IV, p. 81–82)
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