By Albert Linderman

Review of Barfield's Unancestral Voice and it's relationship to Quantum Physics and Rudolph Steiner

I have just finished reading Barfield's Unancestral Voice. Its the best synopsis of Steiner and Barfield's thought I have ever seen. It deals quite a bit and quite well with quantum physics and the reality that there are no current models for quantum physics on which to base experiments. Consequently, quantum physics is left with abstract probability theory from mathematics to substitute for the lack of a model. Classic physics model, the one that postulates reality as consisting of space with Cartesian coordinates (x,y,z), has been disproven by quantum physics, and is left with no model off of which to work. Barfield suggests another direction from which a model should arise, and he gives some historical reasons as to why this model was not around when Western science began to emerge. He discusses Eastern philosophy's incomplete use of that source because they have not incorporated what the West has learned by using the scientific method..

It's not a long book and is pretty easy reading compared to Saving the Appearances. One could easily read it in 4-5 hours. I do not agree with everything Barfield suggests but through this book, one will get an excellent understanding of Steiner. Barfield's main points are quite parallel to Steiner's, but without the difficult writing style of Steiner's translators.

As an interesting side note, C.S. Lewis was a close friend of Owen Barfield and called him "the best and wisest of my unofficial teachers". Barfield was an advocate of looking at philosophy not merely as a subject or academic discipline, but as a way of life. This is illustrated by a well known interaction between Barfield and C.S. Lewis. Lewis once referred to philosophy as "that subject". Barfield replied, "to Plato philosophy was not a 'subject'. It was a Way." Lewis apparently took Barfield's strongly felt point to heart.