The commonplace physical theory of the color spectrum consists in indexing the various colours to their quantitative physical correlates. This is usually achieved by mapping the visible rainbow onto the electromagnetic spectrum. The visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum spans from red, roughly corresponding to a wavelength of 700 nanometers, to violet, at roughly 400. Wavelengths longer than red correspond to such electromagnetic phenomena as infrared, microwaves, and radiowaves, while wavelengths shorter than violet correspond to ionizing radiation as ultraviolet, microwaves, and gamma waves.
I have presented this rough sketch of the electromagnetic theory of colour in order to explore what it might disclose, through analogy, about structure and evolution of the moral life. Suppose we imagine a spectrum of will in parallel with the familiar rainbow. It would be possible to elaborate a theory of morality in which red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet corresponded to gradients of consciousness working in the will—gradients of the will’s translumination by consciousness. We might set forth a spectrum ranging from instinct at one pole to resolution at the other. Thus, the seven-toned will-spectrum might look something like this: instinct, drive, desire, motive, intention, wish, resolution.
Outside of instinct is will that is devoid of any consciousness and thus might rather be thought of as “physical laws” or mere “force.” On the yonder side of resolution are ideal configurations without physical manifestation. This might be thought of as “pure ideation.” In other words, infrared on the electromagnetic spectrum corresponds to matter and motion while ultraviolet corresponds with mind and consciousness. Moral evolution can be thought of as the permeation of the one pole with the other such that one’s material deeds become increasingly shot through with the light of consciousness.
Comparing instinct with resolution, it is clear that in the former case, the material deed will appear before its cognition while prior ideation is a sine qua non for a resolution as such. In other words, in contrast to manifestations of instance, cognition precedes instantiation in the case of a resolution. Again, outside of “the visible spectrum” as I have portrayed it in this analogy, the will undergoes a metamorphosis into something that we do not, to begin with, recognise as will at all. Thus instinct and resolution are limiting cases, comparable to the physiological boundaries of what our visual organs are equipped to perceive. These limiting cases are very much akin to the diverse Scholastic doctrines in respect to the so-called “Problem of universals.” To affirm the existence of universalia post res1 corresponds to the “red” end of our imagined spectrum while to affirm the existence of universalia ante res2 corresponds to the “violet” one. The body of the spectrum corresponds to the universalia in rebus position: to wit, that the thought or idea of a thing is embodied in instances of its type. By way of clarification, consider that, in an instinctual action, an understanding of its reason must be derived post factum in an act of abstraction from the concrete event. The action itself is temporally prior to a consciousness of it: ergo, universalia post rem. In an action born of a resolution, the idea and a consciousness of it must precede the deed in the form of the resolution to carry it out, else we would not call it a “resolution” at all. Thus, universalia ante re. In the span between instinct and resolution can be discovered various degrees of universalia in rebus as mere “force” continues its transformation into will and its transfiguration into human action in the light of consciousness.
Finally, it may be noted that the transformation of the will as outlined above is the magnum opus that is the esoteric plot of every individual biography. It is also the esoteric plot of history. “Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny,” as it has been said.3 People who do things for reasons of which they are not conscious lend themselves to the vicarious influence of retrogressive spirits.
Next I will explore the insights that Goethe’s colour-theory may provide into this question.
Thanks to Rudolf Steiner for providing the conceptual scaffolding that makes explorations such as the above possible. This lecture from several years ago, composed sub umbra coronae also treats the will spectrum in light of Steiner’s Philosophy of Freedom:
“universals after things”
“universals before things”
original with Haeckel, I think