Tertium Organum

it is best not to think? 
Actually, we begin to feel this hopelessness only when we regard man as 
something 'finite' and complete, when we see nothing beyond man and think 
that we already know everything there is in man. In this form the problem is 
indeed hopeless. There is cold comfort in all social theories promising us 
various blessings upon earth. They leave one with a sense of frustration and 
with a bad taste in the mouth, even if one believes their promises. 
Why? What is all this for?
All right, everybody will be fed. Excellent. 
But 
what next? 
Let us suppose - although it is very difficult, almost impossible to suppose 
- but still let us suppose that material culture, by itself, has given men well­
being. Real, unadulterated civilization and culture reign on earth! 
Very well, 
and what next? 
Next, some high sounding phrases about 'incredible horizons' 

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unfolding before 
science -
'communication with the planet Mars', 'chemical 
preparation of protoplasm', the 'utilization of the rotation of the earth round 
the sun' or of 'the energy contained in the atom', 'vaccine for all diseases', 
'prolongation of man's life to a hundred years',
or even to a hundred and fifty!
Then, maybe, 'the artificial fabrication of human beings' - but after this 
imagination fails. 
There might still be left the possibility of digging through the earth - but 
that would be completely useless. 
And then comes the feeling of the insolubility of the fundamental questions 
about the purpose of existence, and the sense of hopelessness in face of our 
lack of understanding. 
Indeed, suppose we do dig through the earthly globe - what then? Shall we 
then dig in another direction? How tedious it all is! But positivist social 
theories, 'historical materialism' and so on, promise and can promise us 
nothing else. In order to obtain at least some kind of an answer to the 
questions which torment us we must turn in quite another direction - to the 
psychological method of study of man and humanity. And here we see to our 
surprise that the psychological method has, after all, very satisfactory answers 
to the principal questions which appear to us insoluble, and around which we 
ineffectually turn armed with the useless weapons of positivist methods. 
The psychological method gives an answer at least to the question of the 
immediate purpose of our existence. But for some reason people do not want 
to accept this answer. They insist on the answer being in a form they like, and 
refuse to accept anything not in that form. They demand the solution of the 
question of the destiny of man, but of man such as they imagine him to be, 
and they refuse to recognize the fact that man can and must become 
something quite different. In man himself there are unmanifested qualities 
which must be made manifest, and the manifestation of these qualities can 
alone create a future for man. Man cannot and must not remain as he is now. 
To think of the future of 
this
man is as senseless as to think of the future of a 
child, thinking that he will remain a child forever. The analogy is not quite 
complete, because only a very small part of humanity is probably capable of 
growth. Still this comparison gives a correct picture of the general attitude to 
this question. And the fate of that greater part of humanity which is incapable 
of growth depends not on itself, but on the smaller pan which will grow. Only
inner growth, the development of new powers, will give man a right
understanding of himself, his ways and his future, and will enable him to 
organize life on earth. At the present time the general concept 'man' is too 
undifferentiated and 

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embraces completely different categories of men, those capable of 
development and those incapable of it. Moreover, a man capable of 
development already has many new qualities which are quite ready but do not 
manifest themselves, because for their manifestation they require a special 
culture, special education.