The Quest of Our Age

Rudolf Steiner:  "Modern science has done great things in overcoming superstition and doing away with methods of explaining the natural world in the way one would 'explain' a watch by saying: 'There are hobgoblins in there'; it has done great things in overcoming a way of looking at nature which wants to have all kinds of ghosts behind the phenomena of the physical world. Its great achievements have been in negation, also as a philosophy. Take a good look at 'scientific naturalism' and how it functions when it is a matter of getting rid of old, unhealthy notions of all kinds of invented fantasy figures behind the world of nature. For as long as this kind of thinking exists and has to be opposed, natural philosophy finds a reason for existence in fighting the things which have to be fought. In a sense, however, this fight has had its day; it has done the good it can do. Today the quest of our age is to ask: 'What means can we use to build an image of the world which has room for the human soul?' And this where natural philosophy and Haeckel's and Ostwald's materialism fail us completely, if human beings perceive themselves to be what they really are. Those who take up the quest of our age will come to understand more and more clearly that the people who hold purely materialistic views make excellent soldiers to fight old superstitions. Now, however, they are old warriors who have done their duty but lack the ability to develop the arts of peace, develop industries, and  till the fields. It cannot be denied that natural science is outstanding as a philosophy when it is a matter of fighting superstition. For as long as the people who make it their philosophy can go on fighting, this fight means something to their souls and keeps them going. Yet when they then want to create a real image of the world in which there is room for the human soul, they are like old warriors who have no talent for the arts of peace."

Source: April 6, 1914. GA 153
The Inner Nature of Man, page 20