I was thinking...if one only perceives something, she's not grasping reality yet...but if her thinking intuits the notion that corresponds to what she perceives, then she is grasping the reality of that something.
That's how human beings map reality. But is something less real, if it hasn't been mapped like this by a human being? (that's a strange thought that passed through my mind).

R.S already points to this when he speaks about the rose which is met by a human consciousness, and in that consciousness the perception unites with the concept of a rose. But he emphasizes the idea that something is added to the rose that belongs to it, when a thinking consciousness meets it - something no less valuable then its stem or leaves.

(this idea I found in the chapter called "Knowledge of the world" - and it surprised me from the first time as I found it very strange)

I have read that Rudolf Steiner wanted his book, which we here are calling The Philosophy of Freedom (PoF), to actually be rendered in English as: The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity (PoSA). Apparently the German word Freiheit, as in "Die Philosophie der Freiheit" does not translate easily into English. I recall someone saying a more accurate rendering would be "Freehood", not Freedom.