Sense of thought

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The sense of thought, thought sense or conceptual sense is one of the twelve physical senses described by Rudolf Steiner in his teachings on the senses. Through the sense of thought we grasp the thoughts of other people. The organ of perception for the thoughts of others is everything in our physical organism that is the basis for our active life. These are namely the dynamic currents in our fluid organism. The sense of thought must not be confused with the sense of life, through which we inwardly perceive our own overall vital condition, but we speak of the sense of thought in so far as the life in ourselves becomes the organ of perception outwardly.

„Sense of thought is not the sense for perceiving one's own thoughts, but for perceiving the thoughts of other people. About this again the psychologists develop quite grotesque ideas. Above all, people are so influenced by the connection between language and thought that they believe that thought is always taken in with language. That is an absurdity. For you could perceive thoughts through your sense of thought as lying in external spatial gestures just as you could in spoken language. The spoken language only conveys the thoughts. You must perceive the thoughts for yourself through your own sense. And once the eurythmic signs have been developed for all sounds, the human being need only eurythmise in front of you and you will read the thoughts from his eurythmic movements just as you hear them in the spoken language. In short, the sense of thought is something different from what works in the sense of sound, in spoken language.“ (Lit.:GA 293, p. 127)

Literature

References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com.
Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books
A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works
Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English.
Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold
steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA)
Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.