This volume goes deeply into questions of the soul's evolving, changing needs for development. Steiner shows how the natural development of the soul stops at about the age of 27. After that we no longer inwardly grow unless we bring it about ourselves. Steiner also explains that comprehending how we arrive at aesthetic assessments depends on an understanding of the higher members of the human being and their relationships to the lower members. This volume along with The Karma of Materialism completes the entire German volume GA 176.