The Fourth Dimension
GA 324a
Questions and Answers X
1909, Stuttgart
(The wording of the Question has not been preserved.)
Mathematics [Note 34] is an abstraction of the sum total of forces working in space. When we say that mathematical theorems are valid a priori, this statement is based on the fact that human beings exist within the same lines of force as other beings and that we are able to abstract this from everything not belonging to the pattern of space, etc.
A handwritten note by Rudolf Steiner in response to a question asked by Georg Herberg. A facsimile of this note is included in the volume Geisteswissenschaftliche Impulse zur Entwickelung der Physik, Erster Naturwissenschaftlicber Kurs (GA 320), Dornach, 1987, p. 192. Georg Herberg (1876-1963), one of Germany's first Ph.D.s in engineering, was an independent engineering consultant in the field of heat and energy economy in Stuttgart from 1913 onward.