Lecture XXXVIII (Nr. 0499)

[494] a supernatural, mythological story. And in the moment in which the "THIS" is ASKED by the child, you have to ask first what does it really mean with it? It takes it literally, probably. So this is the literal meaning in terms of the categorical quality of time, space, causality, substance---"God has sent His Son"---I always give this example---which is taken literally---a story of

something which has happened under the rule of the four main categories: time, space, substance and causality. THIS IS MEANT, probably, if this question is asked. The other word, "True," is equally difficult becasue [sic.] in which sense is the word used? The child probably uses it in the word "Is it true that it really has snowed tonight?" He just awakens and hasn't noticed anything. Now the mother tells him it has snowed tonight, and he is very happy, but since he likes it, he doesn't believe it as we always do---"Something is too good to be true"---this simply means it is an expression of the facts. If it is meant in this sense, then again you must ask, is it meant in this sense? Is that the concept of truth? So in both cases---"this" and "true"---both are very symbolic words. But if the child asks this, then something has happened to him, namely the child DOUBTS!

Now on the basis of what does he doubt, when he asks this, on the basis that it doesn't fit his ordinary worldview, the categorical structure of reality in which such things ordinarily do not happen---now if this is the case, then of course the first indication is given that the next step has to be made by the teacher or the parents, and to show the different "this" and the different "truth," which are possible in this way, and perhaps you have to quote a poem and to see that there are levels of truth which are different from the truth whether there was snow last night.