Rudolf Steiner 26104 edit=autoconfirmed:move=autoconfirmed 225673959 2008-07-14T21:02:44Z Hgilbert 700572 /* The Anthroposophical Society and its cultural activities */ drop internal dead link {{For|the film director of the same name|Rudolf Steiner (director)}} {{Infobox Philosopher | region = Western Philosophy | era = [[20th-century philosophy]] | color = #B0C4DE | image_name = RSteiner.jpg|thumb|Rudolf Steiner | image_name = RSteiner.jpg|thumb|Rudolf Steiner | image_caption = Rudolf Steiner | name = Rudolf Steiner | birth = [[February 25]], [[1861]] Murakirály, [[Austria-Hungary]], now [[Donji Kraljevec]] [[Croatia]] | death = [[March 30]], [[1925]] ([[Dornach]], [[Switzerland]]) | school_tradition = [[Phenomenology]], [[Holism]], [[Monism]] | main_interests = [[Metaphysics]], [[Epistemology]], [[Philosophy of science]], [[Esotericism]], [[Christianity]], [[Theosophy]], [[Freemasonry]] | influences = [[Aristotle]], [[Thomas Aquinas|Aquinas]], [[Jacob Boehme]], [[Franz Brentano]], [[Meister Eckhart]], [[Fichte]], [[Hegel]], [[Goethe]], [[Nietzsche]], [[Schiller]] | influenced = [[Owen Barfield]], [[Josef Beuys]], [[Peter Deunov]], [[Wassily Kandinsky]], [[Albert Schweitzer]], [[Richard Tarnas]], [[Ken Wilber]] | notable_ideas = [[Anthroposophy]], [[Anthroposophical Medicine]], [[Biodynamic Agriculture]], [[Eurythmy]], [[Spiritual Science]], [[Waldorf Education]]}} '''Rudolf Steiner''' (born [[25 February]] [[1861]],<ref>Steiner's date of birth is often given as the 27th of February; this was actually his baptism day. See Christoph Lindenberg, ''Rudolf Steiner'', Rowohlt 1992, ISBN 3-499-50500-2, p. 8</ref> died [[30 March]] [[1925]]) was an [[Austrians|Austrian]] philosopher, literary scholar, educator, artist, playwright, social thinker, and [[Esotericism|esotericist]].<ref>Some of the literature regarding Steiner's work in these various fields: Goulet, P: “Les Temps Modernes?”, ''L'Architecture D'Aujourd'hui'', December 1982, pp. 8-17; [http://www.greatbuildings.com/architects/Rudolf_Steiner.html Architect Rudolf Steiner ]at ''GreatBuildings.com''; [http://eng.archinform.net/arch/1118.htm?scrwdt=1024 Rudolf Steiner] ''International Architecture Database''; Brennan, M: [http://www.artnet.com/magazine_pre2000/reviews/brennan/brennan3-18-98.asp Rudolf Steiner] ''ArtNet Magazine'', [[18 March]] [[1998]]; Blunt, R: Waldorf Education: Theory and Practice — A Background to the Educational Thought of Rudolf Steiner. Master Thesis, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, 1995; Ogletree, EJ: Rudolf Steiner: Unknown Educator, ''Elementary School Journal'', 74(6): 344-352, March 1974; Nilsen, A:[http://sitemaker.umich.edu/nilsen.356/history__waldorf_education A Comparison of Waldorf & Montessori Education], University of Michigan; Rinder, L: [http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/exhibits/steiner/steineressay.html Rudolf Steiner's Blackboard Drawings: An Aesthetic Perspective] and [http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/exhibits/steiner/ exhibition of Rudolf Steiner's Blackboard Drawings], at Berkeley Art Museum, [[11 October]] [[1997]] &ndash; [[4 January]] [[1998]]; Aurélie Choné, “Rudolf Steiner's Mystery Plays: Literary Transcripts of an Esoteric Gnosis and/or Esoteric Attempt at Reconciliation between Art and Science?”, Aries, Volume 6, Number 1, 2006, pp. 27-58(32), Brill publishing; Christopher Schaefer, “Rudolf Steiner as a Social Thinker”, Re-vision Vol 15, 1992; and Antoine Faivre, Jacob Needleman, Karen Voss; ''Modern Esoteric Spirituality'', Crossroad Publishing, 1992.</ref><ref>[http://education.independent.co.uk/news/article2180737.ece “Who was Rudolf Steiner and what were his revolutionary teaching ideas?” Richard Garner, Education Editor, ''The Independent'']</ref><ref>Steiner's autobiography gives his date of birth as 27 February 1861. However, there is an undated autobiographical fragment written by Steiner, referred to in a footnote in his autobiography in German (GA 28), that says, "My birth fell on the 25th of February 1861. Two days later I was baptized."</ref> He was the founder of [[Anthroposophy]], [[Waldorf education]], [[Biodynamic Agriculture|biodynamic agriculture]], [[anthroposophical medicine]],<ref name="CL">Christoph Lindenberg, ''Rudolf Steiner'', Rowohlt 1992, ISBN 3-499-50500-2, pp. 123-6</ref> and the new artistic form of [[Eurythmy]]. He characterized anthroposophy as follows: {{cquote|Anthroposophy is a path of knowledge, to guide the spiritual in the human being to the spiritual in the universe…. Anthroposophists are those who experience, as an essential need of life, certain questions on the nature of the human being and the universe, just as one experiences hunger and thirst.<ref>Steiner, ''Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts'' (1924)</ref>}} Steiner advocated a form of ethical [[individualism]], to which he later brought a more explicitly spiritual component. He derived his [[epistemology]] from [[Johann Wolfgang Goethe]]'s world view, where “Thinking… is no more and no less an organ of perception than the eye or ear. Just as the eye perceives colours and the ear sounds, so thinking perceives ideas.”<ref>Rudolf Steiner, “Goethean Science”, GA1, 1883</ref> == Biography == === Childhood and education === Steiner's father, Johann, left a position as huntsman in the service of Count Hoyos in [[Geras (city)|Geras]] to marry Franziska Blie (the Count had refused his permission); Johann became a telegraph operator on the Southern Austrian Railway, and at the time of Rudolf's birth was stationed in Murakirály in the [[Muraköz]] region, then part of the [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]] (present-day [[Donji Kraljevec]], [[Medjimurje|Međimurje]] region, northernmost [[Croatia]]). In the first two years of Rudolf's life the family moved twice, first to [[Mödling]], near [[Vienna]], and then, through the promotion of his father to stationmaster, to [[Pottschach]], located in the foothills of the eastern Austrian [[Alps]] in present-day [[Burgenland]].<ref name="CL"/> From 1879 to 1883 Steiner attended and then graduated from the [[Vienna]] Institute of Technology ([[Technische Hochschule]]), where he studied [[mathematics]], [[physics]], and [[philosophy]].<ref name=Zander2>Helmut Zander, ''Anthroposophie in Deutschland'', Göttingen 2007, ISBN 3525554524.</ref><!-- p. 446 --> In 1882, one of Steiner's teachers at the university in Vienna, [[Karl Julius Schröer]], suggested Steiner's name to Professor Joseph Kürschner, editor of a new edition of Goethe's works. Steiner was then asked to become the edition's scientific editor.[http://southerncrossreview.org/36/heidenreich.htm] In his autobiography, Steiner related that at 21, on the train between his home village and [[Vienna]], he met a simple herb gatherer, Felix Kogutski, who spoke about the spiritual world "as someone who had his own experiences of it...." This herb gatherer introduced Steiner to a person that Steiner only identified as a "master", and who had a great influence on Steiner's subsequent development, in particular directing him to study [[Johann Gottlieb Fichte|Fichte]]'s philosophy.<ref>Steiner, Rudolf, ''The Course of My Life'', Chapter III and GA 262, pp. 7-21. Fichte is mentioned by Alfred Heidenreich; see [http://southerncrossreview.org/36/heidenreich.htm this article], but his reference to Steiner's autobiography as the source for this seems to be erroneous.</ref> In 1891 Steiner earned a doctorate in philosophy at the [[University of Rostock]] in [[Germany]] with a thesis based upon Fichte's concept of the [[ego]],<ref name=RAMcD/> later published in expanded form as ''Truth and Knowledge''.[http://www.rsarchive.org/Books/GA003/index.php][[Image:Rudolf Steiner 1889a.jpg|thumb|Rudolf Steiner 1889]] ===Writer and philosopher=== In 1888, as a result of his work for the Kurschner edition of [[Goethe]]'s works, Steiner was invited to work as an editor at the Goethe archives in [[Weimar]]. Steiner remained with the archive until 1896. As well as the introductions for and commentaries to four volumes of Goethe's scientific writings, Steiner wrote two books about Goethe's philosophy: ''The Theory of Knowledge Implicit in Goethe's World-Conception'' (1886) and ''Goethe's Conception of the World'' (1897). During this time he also collaborated in complete editions of [[Arthur Schopenhauer]]'s work and that of the writer [[Jean Paul]] and wrote articles for various journals. During his time at the archives, Steiner wrote what he considered his most important philosophical work, ''Die Philosophie der Freiheit'' (''The [[Philosophy of Freedom]]'') (1894), an exploration of [[epistemology]] and [[ethics]] that suggested a path upon which humans can become spiritually free beings (see below). In 1896 [[Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche]] asked Steiner to set the Nietzsche archive in [[Naumburg]] in order. Her brother by that time was no longer ''[[Non compos mentis|compos mentis]]''. Förster-Nietzsche introduced Steiner into the presence of the catatonic philosopher and Steiner, deeply moved, subsequently wrote the book ''Friedrich Nietzsche, Fighter for Freedom''. Of Nietzsche, Steiner says in his autobiography, "Nietzsche's ideas of the 'eternal repetition' and of 'supermen' remained long in my mind. For in these was reflected that which a personality must feel concerning the evolution and essential being of humanity when this personality is kept back from grasping the spiritual world by the restricted thought in the philosophy of nature characterizing the end of the nineteenth century."<ref name="Nietzsche">[http://wn.rsarchive.org/Books/GA028/TSoML/GA028_c18.html Steiner, ''The Story of My Life'', chapter 18]</ref> "What attracted me particularly was that one could read Nietzsche without coming upon anything which strove to make the reader a 'dependent' of Nietzsche's'."<ref name="Nietzsche">ibid.</ref>. In 1897, Steiner left the [[Weimar]] archives and moved to [[Berlin]]. He became owner, chief editor, and active contributor to the literary journal ''Magazin für Literatur'', where he hoped to find a readership sympathetic to his philosophy. His work in the magazine was not well received by its readership, including the alienation of subscribers following Steiner's unpopular support of [[Émile Zola]] in the [[Dreyfus Affair]].<ref name="GL">Gary Lachman, ''Rudolf Steiner'', Tarcher/Penguin 2007.</ref> The ''Magazin für Literatur'' lost more subscribers after Steiner's close friendship with [[anarchist]] writer [[John Henry Mackay]] was revealed when Steiner published extracts from their correspondence.<ref name="GL"/> Dissatisfaction with his editorial style eventually led to his departure from the magazine. In 1899, Steiner married Anna Eunicke. They were later separated; Anna died in 1911. [[Image:Steiner Berlin 1900 big.jpg|thumb|Rudolf Steiner 1900]] ===Steiner and the Theosophical Society=== {{main|Rudolf Steiner and the Theosophical Society}} A turning point came in 1899, when Steiner published an article in his ''Magazin für Literatur'', titled "Goethe's Secret Revelation", on the esoteric nature of Goethe's fairy tale, ''[[The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily]]''. This article led to an invitation by the Count and Countess Brockdorff to speak to a gathering of [[Theosophy|Theosophists]] on the subject of Nietzsche. Steiner continued speaking regularly to the members of the [[Theosophical Society Adyar|Theosophical Society]], becoming the head of its newly constituted German section in 1902, though without ever joining the society.<ref name=RAMcD/> It was within this society that Steiner met and worked with Marie von Sievers, who eventually became his second wife (1914). By 1904, Steiner was appointed by [[Annie Besant]] to be leader of the Esoteric Society for Germany and Austria. The German Section of the Theosophical Society grew rapidly under Steiner's leadership as he lectured throughout much of Europe on his [[spiritual science]]. During this period Steiner maintained an original approach, replacing [[H. P. Blavatsky|Madame Blavatsky]]'s terminology with his own, and basing his spiritual research and teachings upon the Western esoteric and philosophical tradition. This and other differences, in particular the pronouncement by [[C. W. Leadbeater]] and [[Annie Besant]] that [[Jiddu Krishnamurti]] was the vehicle of a new world teacher and the reincarnation of Christ, claims Steiner publicly rejected, led to a formal split in 1912/13,<ref name=RAMcD/> when Steiner and the majority of members of the German section of the Theosophical Society broke off to form a new group, the [[Anthroposophical Society]]. Despite theosophy having been a primary source for his ideas, Steiner later denied that [[Blavatsky]] or [[Annie Besant]] had been influences upon him; in fact, it is often difficult to trace influences upon his thinking, as "Steiner maintained that his philosophy was an integrated whole that came from direct spiritual insight."<ref name=Hammer/> ===The Anthroposophical Society and its cultural activities=== The Anthroposophical Society grew rapidly. Fueled by a need to find a home for their yearly conferences, which included performances of plays written by Eduard Schuré as well as Steiner himself, the decision was made to build a theater and organizational center. In 1913, construction began on the first [[Goetheanum]] building, in [[Dornach]], [[Switzerland]]. The building, designed by Steiner, was built to significant part by volunteers who offered craftsmanship or simply a will to learn new skills. Once [[World War I]] started in 1914, the Goetheanum volunteers could hear the sound of cannon fire beyond the Swiss border, but despite the war, people from all over Europe worked peaceably side by side on the building's construction. In 1919, the Goetheanum staged the world premiere of a complete production of [[Goethe]]'s ''[[Faust]]''. In this same year, the first [[Waldorf schools|Waldorf school]] was founded in [[Stuttgart]], Germany. Beginning in 1919, Steiner was called upon to assist with numerous practical activities (see below). His lecture activity expanded enormously. At the same time, the Goetheanum developed as a wide-ranging cultural centre. On New Year's Eve, 1922/1923, it was burned down by arson; only his massive sculpture depicting the spiritual forces active in the world and the human being, the [[:Image:Representative of humanity.gif|Representative of Humanity]], was saved. Steiner immediately began work designing a [[Goetheanum|second Goetheanum]] building &ndash; made of concrete instead of wood &ndash; which was completed in 1928, three years after his death. During the [[Anthroposophical Society]]'s Christmas conference in 1923, Steiner founded a ''School of Spiritual Science'', intended as an open university for research and study. This university, which has various sections or faculties, has grown steadily; it is particularly active today in the fields of [[Waldorf education|education]], [[Anthroposophical medicine|medicine]], [[biodynamic agriculture|agriculture]], art, natural science, literature, philosophy, sociology and economics. Steiner spoke of laying the foundation stone of the new society in the hearts of his listeners, while the First Goetheanum's foundation stone had been laid in the earth. He gave a [[:Wikisource:Foundation Stone meditation|Foundation Stone meditation]] to anchor this. ===Attacks, illness and death=== The arson committed against the First Goetheanum had a context. Threats had been made publicly against the Goetheanum <ref>"Home of Theosophy Burns", New York Times Jan 2, 1923.</ref>, and against Steiner himself<ref>"Riot at Munich Lecture", New York Times, May 17 1922.</ref> by right-wing nationalists. Reacting to the catastrophic situation in post-war Germany, Steiner had gone on extensive lecture tours promoting his social ideas of the [[Threefold Social Order]], entailing a fundamentally different political structure; he suggested that only through independence of the cultural, political and economic realms could such catastrophes as the World War be avoided. He also promoted a radical solution in the disputed area of [[Upper Silesia]] - claimed by both [[Poland]] and [[Germany]]: his suggestion that this area be granted at least provisional independence led to his being publicly accused of being a traitor to Germany.<ref>The accusation was published in the ''Frankfurter Zeitung'', March 4 1921</ref> In 1919, the political theorist of the [[National Socialist German Workers Party|National Socialist]] movement in Germany, [[Dietrich Eckart]], attacked Steiner and suggested that he was a Jew.<ref name=Werner>Uwe Werner, ''Anthroposophen in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus'', Munich (1999), p. 7. </ref> In 1921, [[Adolf Hitler]] attacked Steiner in an article in the right-wing "Völkischen Beobachter" newspaper, including accusations that Steiner was a tool of the [[Jews]],<ref>[http://www.defendingsteiner.com/sources/hitler-steiner.php ''Völkische Beobachter'', March 15, 1921]</ref> and other nationalist extremists in Germany were calling up a "war against Steiner". The 1923 [[Beer Hall Putsch]] in Munich led Steiner to give up his residence in Berlin, saying that if those responsible for the attempted coup [Hitler and others] came to power in Germany, it would no longer be possible for him to enter the country; <ref>[http://www.anthroposophy.com/aktuelles/wiesberger.html Die Krise der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft 1923<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> he also warned against the disastrous effects it would have for Central Europe if the National Socialists came to power.<ref>Werner, p. 8</ref> The loss of the Goetheanum affected Steiner's health seriously. From 1923 on, he showed signs of increasing frailness and illness. He continued to lecture widely, and even to travel; especially towards the end of this time, he was often giving two, three or even four lectures daily for courses taking place concurrently. On the one hand, many of these were for practical areas of life: education, curative eurythmy, speech and drama. On the other hand, Steiner began a new, extensive series of lectures presenting his research on the successive lives of various individuals, and on the technique of karma research generally.<ref>Lindenberg, Christoph, ''Rudolf Steiner: Eine Biographie'' Vol. II, Chapter 52. ISBN 3-7725-1551-7</ref> By autumn, 1924, however, he was too weak to continue; his last lecture was held in September of that year. He died on March 30, 1925. ===Spiritual research=== From his decision to "go public" in 1899 until his death in 1925, Steiner articulated an ongoing stream of experiences that he claimed were of the spiritual world — experiences he said had touched him from an early age on.<ref name="GL"/> Steiner aimed to apply his training in [[mathematics]], [[science]], and [[philosophy]] to produce rigorous, verifiable presentations of those experiences. <ref>Lindenberg, "Schritte auf dem Weg zur Erweiterung der Erkenntnis", pp. 77ff</ref> Steiner believed that through freely chosen [[ethics|ethical]] disciplines and [[meditation|meditative training]], anyone could develop the ability to experience the [[spirit|spiritual world]], including the higher nature of oneself and others.<ref name="GL"/> Steiner believed that such [[discipline]] and training would help a person to become a more [[morality|moral]], [[creativity|creative]] and [[Freedom (philosophy)|free]] [[individuality|individual]] - free in the sense of being capable of actions motivated solely by [[love]].<ref name="Schneider">Chapter 4</ref> Steiner's ideas about the inner life were influenced by [[Franz Brentano]]<ref name="GL"/> - with whom he had studied - and [[Wilhelm Dilthey]], founders of the [[Phenomenology|phenomenological]] movement in European philosophy. Steiner was also influenced by Goethe's [[phenomenological science|phenomenological approach to science]].<ref name="GL"/><ref>Bockemühl, J., ''Toward a Phenomenology of the Etheric World'' ISBN 0-88010-115-6</ref><ref>Edelglass, S. et al., ''The Marriage of Sense and Thought'', ISBN 0-940262-82-7.</ref>'' Steiner's collected works include about 40 volumes of his writings and more than 300 volumes of lectures. His most notable writings include: *''Philosophy of Freedom'' (1893) (also translated as ''Philosophy of Spiritual Activity''): his chief philosophical work; see above. *''Theosophy: An Introduction'' (1904), in which he sets forth his ideas of the body-soul-spirit constitution of the human being, reincarnation, and the unity of the spiritual and sense-perceptible ("as two sides of a single coin"). *''Knowledge of Higher Worlds'' (1904/5), in which he describes his conception of a path of spiritual development, detailing many principles of life (openness, positivity, respect for others), spiritual exercises (control of thought and will, directed imaginations) and experiences likely to arise on this path (trials and spiritual perceptions). *''An Outline of Esoteric Science'' (1910), in which he describes a vast panorama of cosmic evolution, the spiritual hierarchies that guide this evolution, and the path of spiritual development that leads to such perceptions. Steiner led the following esoteric schools: *His independent ''Esoteric School'' of the Theosophical Society, founded in 1904. This school continued after the break with [[Theosophy]] (see below) and eventually led into the *A lodge called ''Mystica Aeterna'' within the [[Masonic]] ''Order of Memphis and Mizraim'', which Steiner led from 1906 until around 1914. Steiner added to the Masonic rite a number of Rosicrucian references.<ref> Ellic Howe: ''The Magicians of the Golden Dawn'' London 1985, Routledge, pp 262 ff</ref> The figure of [[Christian Rosenkreutz]] also plays an important role in several of his later lectures. *The ''School of Spiritual Science'' of the Anthroposophical Society, founded in 1923. This was intended to have three "classes", but Steiner only developed the first one of these. Unlike most esoteric schools, all of the texts relating to the "School of Spiritual Science" have been published (in the full edition of Steiner's works). ==Philosophical development== ===Goethean science=== In his commentaries on Goethe's scientific works, written between 1884-97, Steiner presented Goethe's approach to science as essentially [[phenomenology|phenomenological]] in nature, rather than theory- or model-based. He developed this conception further in several books, ''The Theory of Knowledge Implicit in Goethe's World-Conception'' (1886) and ''Goethe's Conception of the World'' (1897), particularly emphasizing the transformation in Goethe's approach from the physical sciences, where experiment played the primary role, to plant biology, where imagination was required to find the biological archetypes (''Urpflanze''), and postulated that Goethe had sought but been unable to fully find the further transformation in scientific thinking necessary to properly interpret and understand the animal kingdom.<ref name=Hemleben>Johannes Hemleben, ''Rudolf Steiner: A documentary biography'', Henry Goulden Ltd, 1975, ISBN 090482202-8, pp. 37-49 (German edition: Rowohlt Verlag, 1990, ISBN 349950079-5)</ref> Steiner defended Goethe's qualitative description of [[color]] as arising synthetically from the polarity of light and darkness, in contrast to [[Isaac Newton|Newton]]'s particle-based and analytic conception. He emphasized the role of evolutionary thinking in Goethe's discovery of the intermaxillary bone in human beings; Goethe expected human anatomy to be an evolutionary transformation of animal anatomy.<ref name=Hemleben/> ===Knowledge and freedom=== Steiner approached the philosophical questions of [[epistemology|knowledge]] and [[Freedom (philosophy)|freedom]] in two stages. The first was his dissertation, published in expanded form in 1892 as ''Truth and Knowledge''. Here Steiner suggests that there is an inconsistency between [[Kant]]'s [[philosophy]], which postulated that the essential verity of the world was inaccessible to human consciousness, and modern science, which assumes that all influences can be found in what Steiner termed the "sinnlichen und geistlichen" (sensory and mental/spiritual) world to which we have access. Steiner terms Kant's "Jenseits-Philosophie" (philosophy of an inaccessible beyond) a stumbling block in achieving a satisfying philosophical viewpoint.<ref>[[Anthony Storr]], ''Feet of Clay'', Free Press-Simon and Schuster, 1996. Storr quotes Steiner p72, "If, however, we regard the sum of all percepts as the one part and contrast with this a second part, namely the things-in-themselves, then we are philosophising into the blue. We are merely playing with concepts." </ref> Steiner postulates that the world is essentially an indivisible unity, but that our [[consciousness]] divides it into the [[senses|sense]]-perceptible appearance, on the one hand, and the formal nature accessible to our [[thinking]], on the other. He sees in thinking itself an element that can be strengthened and deepened sufficiently to penetrate all that our senses do not reveal to us. Steiner thus explicitly denies all justification to a division between [[faith]] and [[knowledge]]; otherwise expressed, between the spiritual and natural worlds. Their apparent [[duality]] is conditioned by the structure of our consciousness, which separates [[perception]] and [[thinking]], but these two faculties give us two complementary views of the same world; neither has primacy and the two together are necessary and sufficient to arrive at a complete understanding of the world. In thinking about [[perception]] (the path of natural [[science]]) and perceiving the process of thinking (the path of [[spirituality|spiritual]] training), it is possible to discover a hidden inner unity between the two poles of our experience. <ref name="Schneider">Chapter 4</ref> [[Truth]], for Steiner, is paradoxically both an objective discovery and yet: :"a free creation of the human spirit, that never would exist at all if we did not generate it ourselves. The task of understanding is not to replicate in conceptual form something that already exists, but rather to create a wholly new realm, that together with the world given to our senses constitutes the fullness of reality."<ref>Steiner, Rudolf, ''Truth and Science'', Preface.</ref> A new stage of Steiner's philosophical development is expressed in his ''[[Philosophy of Freedom]]''. Here, he further explores potentials within thinking: freedom, he suggests, can only be approached [[asymptote|asymptotically]] and with the aid of the "creative activity" of thinking. Thinking can be a free deed; in addition, it can liberate our will from its subservience to our [[instinct]]s and [[motivation|drive]]s. Free deeds, he suggests, are those for which we are fully conscious of the motive for our action; freedom is the spiritual activity of penetrating with consciousness our own nature and that of the world,<ref>"To be conscious of the laws underlying one's actions is to be conscious of one's freedom. The process of knowing [Erkenntnis] is the process of development towards freedom." Steiner, GA3, pp. 91f, quoted in Rist and Schneider, p. 134</ref> and the real activity of acting in full consciousness.<ref name="Schneider">pp. 133-4</ref> (See the main article on the book ''[[Philosophy of Freedom]]'' for a fuller exposition.) This includes overcoming influences of both heredity and environment: "To be free is to be capable of thinking one's own thoughts - not the thoughts merely of the body, or of society, but thoughts generated by one's deepest, most original, most essential and spiritual self, one's individuality."<ref name=RAMcD/> Steiner affirms [[Charles Darwin|Darwin]]'s and [[Haeckel]]'s [[evolution]]ary perspectives but extends this beyond its [[materialism|materialistic]] consequences; he sees human [[consciousness]], indeed, all human [[culture]], as a product of natural evolution that transcends itself. For Steiner, nature becomes self-conscious in the human being. Steiner's description of the nature of human consciousness thus closely parallels that of [[Vladimir Solovyov (philosopher)|Solovyov]]:<ref>Richard Tarnas, ''The Passion of the Western Mind'', ISBN 0712673326</ref> :In human beings, the absolute subject-object appears ''as such'', i.e. as pure spiritual activity, containing all of its own objectivity, the whole process of its natural manifestation, but containing it totally ideally - in consciousness....The subject knows here only its own activity as an objective activity (sub specie object). Thus, the original identity of subject and object is restored in philosophical knowledge.<ref>Solovyov, Vladimir, ''The Crisis of Western Philosophy'', Lindisfarne 1996 pp. 42-3</ref> ===Spiritual science=== {{main|Anthroposophy}} {{see also|Rudolf Steiner's exercises for spiritual development}} In his earliest works, Steiner already spoke of the "natural and spiritual worlds" as a unity.<ref name="GL"/> From 1900 on, he began lecturing about concrete details of the spiritual world(s), culminating in the publication in 1904 of the first of several systematic presentations, his ''Theosophy: An Introduction to the Spiritual Processes in Human Life and in the Cosmos'', followed by ''How to Know Higher Worlds'' (1904/5), ''Cosmic Memory'' (a collection of articles written between 1904 and 1908), and ''An Outline of Esoteric Science'' (1910). Important themes include: *the human being as body, [[soul]] and [[spirit]]; *the path of spiritual development; *spiritual influences on world-evolution and history; and *[[reincarnation]] and [[karma]], which he considered to be his own central theme. Steiner emphasized that there is an objective natural and spiritual world that can be known, and that perceptions of the spiritual world and incorporeal beings are, under conditions of training comparable to that required for the natural sciences, but including extraordinary self-discipline, replicable by multiple observers. It is on this basis that [[spiritual science]] is possible, with radically different epistemological foundations than those of natural science. For Steiner, the cosmos is permeated and continually transformed by the creative activity of non-physical processes and spiritual beings. For the human being to become conscious of the objective reality of these processes and beings, it is necessary to creatively enact and reenact, within, their creative activity. Thus objective knowledge always entails creative inner activity.<ref name="GL"/> Steiner articulated three stages of any creative deed:<ref name="Schneider">Part II, Chapter 1</ref> *Moral intuition: the ability to discover ethical principles appropriate to the circumstances at hand: [[situational ethics]] *Moral imagination: the imaginative transformation of an ethical principle into a concrete intention for the future evolution of the particular situation *Moral technique: the realization of the intended transformation, depending on a mastery of practical skills. Steiner termed his work from this period on ''[[Anthroposophy]]''. He emphasized that the spiritual path he represented builds upon and supports individual freedom and independent [[judgment]], whereby for the results of spiritual research to be appropriately presented in a modern context they must be in a form accessible to [[logic]]al understanding, so that those who do not have access to the spiritual experiences underlying anthroposophical research can make independent evaluations of the latter's results.<ref name="Schneider">Peter Schneider, ''Einführung in die Waldorfpädagogik'', ISBN 3-608-93006-X</ref> Steiner considered the purpose of human evolution to be the development of the mutually interdependent qualities of [[love]] and [[freedom]].<ref name=RAMcD>Robert A. McDermott, "Rudolf Steiner and Anthroposophy", in Faivre and Needleman, ''Modern Esoteric Spirituality'', ISBN 0-8245-1444-0, p. 288ff</ref> ==Breadth of activity== After the [[First World War]], Steiner became active in a wide variety of cultural contexts. He founded a school, known as the [[Waldorf education|Waldorf school]],<ref>IN CONTEXT #6, Summer 1984</ref> which later evolved into a world-wide school network. The agricultural system he founded, now known as [[Biodynamic agriculture]], was one of the initial forms of and has contributed significantly to the development of modern [[organic farming]].<ref>[http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/biodynamic.html ATTRA - National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service]</ref> [[Anthroposophic medicine]] has created a broad range of anthroposophical medicines; in addition, a wide range of supportive therapies — both artistic and biographical — have arisen out of Steiner's work.<ref>Evans, M. and Rodger, I. ''Anthroposophical Medicine: Treating Body, Soul and Spirit''</ref> The homes for the handicapped based on his work (the [[Camphill movement]]) are widely spread.<ref>[http://www.camphill.org.uk/directry/Directory.pdf Camphill list of communities]</ref> His paintings and drawings have been exhibited in museums and galleries, and the list of people influenced by him includes [[Joseph Beuys]] and other significant modern artists. His two Goetheanum buildings are generally accepted to be masterpieces of [[modern architecture]],<ref>*Both Goetheanum buildings are listed as among the most significant 100 buildings of modern architecture by Goulet, Patrice, ''Les Temps Modernes?'', L'Architecture D'Aujourd'hui, December 1982. *See also [http://www.greatbuildings.com/architects/Rudolf_Steiner.html Great Buildings Online]</ref> and other anthroposophical architects have contributed thousands of buildings to the modern scene. One of first institutions to practice [[ethical banking]] was an [[Gls bank|anthroposophical bank]] working out of Steiner's ideas. Steiner's [[literary estate]] is correspondingly broad. Steiner's writings are published in about forty volumes, including books, essays, plays ('mystery dramas'), mantric verse and an [[autobiography]]. His collected lectures make up another approximately 300 volumes, and nearly every imaginable theme is covered somewhere here. (Much of Steiner's work is available on-line at the [http://www.rsarchive.org/ Rudolf Steiner archive], and Steiner's complete works are searchable at the [http://www.rudolf-steiner.com/ German language archive]). Steiner's drawings are collected in a separate series of 28 volumes. Many publications have covered his architectural legacy and sculptural work. ===Education=== As a young man, Steiner already supported the independence of educational institutions from governmental control. In 1907, he wrote a long essay, entitled "Education in the Light of Spiritual Science", in which he described the major phases of child development and suggested that these would be the basis of a healthy approach to education. In 1919, [[Emil Molt]] invited him to lecture on the topic of education to the workers at Molt's factory in Stuttgart. Out of this came a new school, the Waldorf school, and [[Waldorf education]] &mdash; sometimes known as Steiner Education. During Steiner's lifetime, schools based on his educational principles were also founded in [[Hamburg]], [[Essen]], [[The Hague]] and [[London]]. There are now more than 1000 independent Waldorf schools world-wide. ===Social activism=== For a period after World War I, Steiner was extremely active as a lecturer on social questions. A petition expressing his basic social ideas (signed by [[Herman Hesse]], among others) was very widely circulated. His main book on social questions, ''Toward Social Renewal'', sold tens of thousands of copies. Today around the world there are a number of innovative banks, companies, charitable institutions, and schools for developing new cooperative forms of business, all working partly out of Steiner’s social ideas. One example is The Rudolf Steiner Foundation (RSF), incorporated in 1984, and as of 2004 with estimated assets of $70 million. RSF provides "charitable innovative financial services". According to the independent organizations Co-op America and the Social Investment Forum Foundation, RSF is "one of the top 10 best organizations exemplifying the building of economic opportunity and hope for individuals through community investing." <ref>[http://www.communityinvest.org/news/press/green_banking_release.pdf Community Investing Center press release]</ref> Steiner suggested that the cultural, political and economic spheres of society needed to be sufficiently independent of one another to be able to mutually correct each other in an ongoing way. He suggested that human society had been moving slowly, over thousands of years, toward articulation of society into three independent yet mutually corrective realms, and that a [[Threefold Social Order]] was not some utopia that could be implemented in a day or even a century. It was a gradual process that he expected would continue to develop for thousands of years. Nevertheless, he gave many specific suggestions for social reforms that he thought would increase the threefold articulation of society. He believed in [[equality]] of [[human rights]] for political life, [[liberty]] in cultural life, and voluntary, uncoerced fraternal cooperation in economic life.<ref name="Essential">Robert McDermott, ''The Essential Steiner'', Harper San Francisco 1984 ISBN 0-06-065345-0</ref> [[Image:First Goetheanum.jpg|thumb|left|300px|First Goetheanum.]] ===Architecture and sculpture=== Steiner designed 17 buildings, including the [[Goetheanum|First and Second Goetheanums]]. These two buildings, built in Dornach, Switzerland, were intended to house a ''University for Spiritual Science''. Three of Steiner's buildings, including both Goetheanum buildings, have been listed amongst the most significant works of modern architecture.<ref>Goulet, P: "Les Temps Modernes?", ''L'Architecture D'Aujourd'hui'', Dec. 1982, pp. 8-17.</ref> As a sculptor, his works include ''The Representative of Humanity'' (1922). This nine-meter high wood sculpture was a joint project with the sculptor [[Edith Maryon]]; it is on permanent display at the Goetheanum in Dornach. [[Image:Representative of humanity.gif|thumb|right|225px|''The Representative of Humanity'' (detail).]] ===Performing arts=== Together with [[Marie Steiner-von Sievers]], Rudolf Steiner developed the art of [[Eurythmy]], sometimes referred to as "visible speech and visible song". According to the principles of Eurythmy, there are archetypal movements or gestures that correspond to every aspect of speech - the sounds, or [[phonemes]], the rhythms, the grammatical function, and so on - to every "soul quality" - laughing, despair, intimacy, etc. - and to every aspect of music - tones, intervals, rhythms, harmonies, etc. As a playwright, Steiner wrote four "Mystery Dramas" between 1909 and 1913, including ''The Portal of Initiation'' and ''The Soul's Awakening''. They are still performed today by Anthroposophical groups. Steiner also founded a new approach to artistic speech and drama; see his ''Speech and Drama Course''. Various ensembles work with this approach, called "speech formation" (Ger.:''Sprachgestaltung''), and trainings exist in various countries, including England, the United States, Switzerland, and Germany; see [http://anthromedia.net/Trainings_Fields_o.1232.0.html a list of trainings]. The actor [[Michael Chekhov]] extended this approach in what is now known as the Chekhov method <ref>Byckling, L: [http://www.utoronto.ca/tsq/01/chekhovwest.shtml Michael Chekhov as Actor, Teacher and Director in the West]. ''Toronto Slavic Quarterly'' No 1 - Summer 2002. University of Toronto, Academic Electronic Journal in Slavic Studies.</ref> ===Anthroposophical medicine=== {{main|Anthroposophical medicine}} From the late 1910s, Steiner was working with doctors to create a new approach to medicine. In 1921, [[pharmacist]]s and [[physician]]s gathered under Steiner's guidance to create a pharmaceutical company called Weleda, which now distributes natural medical products worldwide. At around the same time, Dr. [[Ita Wegman]] founded a first anthroposophic medical clinic in Arlesheim, Switzerland (now called the Wegman Clinic). Steiner's descriptions of certain [[Organ (anatomy)|bodily organs]] and their functions sometimes differ significantly from those found in medical textbooks. He stated, for example, that the [[heart]] is not a mechanical pump but a dynamic regulator of circulatory flow,<ref>Marinelli, Ralph and others ''The Heart Is Not A Pump'' Frontier Perspectives 5(1), 1995</ref> a view that has been confirmed by recent medical research.<ref>"Thus, the valveless embryonic heart does not drive circulation through peristalsis." {{cite journal | last = Forouhar et. al | first = | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = The Embryonic Vertebrate Heart Tube is a Dynamic Suction Pump | journal = Science | volume = 312 | issue = 5774 | pages = 751–3| date = 5 May 2006 |url= http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/312/5774/751 | accessdate =| doi = 10.1126/science.1123775| pmid = 16675702}}</ref> ===Biodynamic farming & gardening=== [[Biodynamic agriculture]], or biodynamics, comprises an ecological and sustainable farming system, that includes many of the ideas of organic farming (but predates the term). In 1924, a group of farmers concerned about the future of agriculture requested Steiner's help; Steiner responded with a lecture series on agriculture. This was the origin of biodynamic agriculture, which is now practiced throughout much of Europe, North America, and Australasia.<ref>[http://www.biodynamics.com/regional.html Groups in N. America], [http://demeter.net/certification/ List of Demeter certifying organizations], [http://demeter.net/certification/ Other biodynamic certifying organization],[http://demeter.net/certification/ce_presentation.php?languagechoice=en&languageadmin=0 Some farms in the world]</ref> A central concept of these lectures was to "individualize" the farm by bringing no or few outside materials onto the farm, but producing all needed materials such as [[manure]] and [[animal feed]] from within what he called the "farm organism". Other aspects of biodynamic farming inspired by Steiner's lectures include timing activities such as planting in relation to the movement patterns of the [[moon]] and [[planets]] and applying "preparations", which consist of natural materials which have been processed in specific ways, to [[soil]], [[composting|compost pile]]s, and plants with the intention of engaging non-physical beings and elemental forces. Steiner, in his lectures, encouraged his listeners to verify his suggestions [[scientific method|scientifically]], as he had not yet done. The early decades of the twentieth-century agriculture started using inorganic fertilizers such as nitrogen "condensed" from the air and subsequently applied to the fields. Steiner believed that the introduction of this [[Industrial agriculture|chemical farming]] was a very detrimental. Stating ''"Mineral manuring is a thing that must cease altogether in time, for the effect of every kind of mineral manure, after a time, is that the products grown on the fields thus treated lose their nutritive value. It is an absolutely general law."'' <ref>Agriculture Course, Rudolf Steiner (1924) This quote appears in the discussion after the sixth lecture.</ref> Steiner was convinced that the quality of food in his time had degraded, and he believed the source of the problem was [[Industrial agriculture|chemical farming]]'s use of artificial [[fertilizer]]s and [[pesticide]]s, however he did not believe this was only because of the chemical or biological properties relating to the substances involved, but also due to spiritual shortcomings in the whole chemical approach to farming. Steiner considered the world and everything in it as simultaneously spiritual and material in nature, an approach termed [[monism]]. He also believed that living matter was different from dead matter. In other words, Steiner believed synthetic nutrients were not the same as their more living counterparts.<ref name=Diver>Steve Diver, [http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/biodynamic.html ''Biodynamic Farming & Compost Preparation'']</ref> The name "biologically dynamic" or "biodynamic" was coined by Steiner's adherents. A central aspect of biodynamics is that the farm as a whole is seen as an organism, and therefore should be a closed self-nourishing system, which the preparations nourish. Disease of organisms is not to be tackled in isolation but is a symptom of problems in the whole organism. Although the number of biodynamic farms in the world is relatively small, as of 2006 about one quarter of the farms in India have adopted biodynamic practices.<ref>How to Save the World: One Man, One Cow, One Planet; Thomas Burstyn</ref> ==Steiner and Christianity== In 1899 Steiner experienced what he described as a life-transforming inner encounter with the being of [[Christ]]; previously he had little or no relation to Christianity in any form. Then and thereafter, his relationship to Christianity remained entirely founded upon personal experience, and thus both non-denominational and strikingly different from conventional religious forms.<ref name=RAMcD/> ===Christ and human evolution=== Steiner describes Christ's being and mission on earth as having a central place in human evolution:<ref name="Willmann">Carlo Willmann, ''Waldorfpädagogik: Theologische und religionspädagogische Befunde'', Kölner Veröffentlichungen zur Religionsgeschichte, Volume 27, ISBN 3-412-16700-2, especially Chapters 1.3, 1.4</ref> :The being of Christ is central to ''all'' religions, though called by different names by each. :Every religion is valid and true for the time and cultural context in which it was born. :Historical forms of Christianity need to be transformed considerably in our times in order to meet the on-going evolution of humanity. It is the being that unifies all religions — and not a particular religious faith — that Steiner saw as the central force in human evolution. He understood Christ's incarnation as a historical reality, and a pivotal point in human history, however. The "Christ Being" is for Steiner not only the Redeemer of [[The Fall of Man|the Fall]] from [[Paradise]], but also the unique pivot and meaning of earth's "evolutionary" processes and of all human history. <ref name="Willmann"/> The essence of being "[[Christian]]" is, for Steiner, a search for balance between polarizing extremes<ref name="Willman">p. 102-3</ref> and the ability to manifest love in freedom.<ref name=RAMcD/> ===Divergence from conventional Christian thought=== Steiner's views of Christianity diverge from conventional Christian thought in key places, and include gnostic elements.<ref name=Hemleben2>Johannes Hemleben, op. cit., pp. 96-100.</ref> One of the central points of divergence is found in [[Anthroposophy#Human_being:_body.2C_soul_and_spirit|Steiner's views on reincarnation and karma]]. Steiner also posited two different Jesus children involved in the Incarnation of the Christ: one child descended from [[Solomon]], as described in the [[Gospel of Matthew]]; the other child from [[Nathan (son of David)|Nathan]], as described in the [[Gospel of Luke]].<ref name="Essential"/> (The [[genealogy|genealogies]] given in the two gospels diverge some thirty generations before Jesus' birth.) Steiner's view of the [[second coming]] of Christ is also unusual. He suggested that this would not be a physical reappearance, but rather, meant that the Christ being would become [[manifestation|manifest]] in non-physical form, in the "[[Etheric plane|etheric]] realm" — i.e. visible to spiritual vision and apparent in community life — for increasing numbers of people, beginning around the year 1933. He emphasized that the future would require humanity to recognize this Spirit of Love in all its genuine forms, regardless of how this is named. He also warned that the traditional name, "Christ", might be used, yet the true essence of this Being of Love ignored.<ref name=Hemleben2/> ===The Christian Community=== In the 1920s, Steiner was approached by [[Friedrich Rittelmeyer]], a [[Lutheran]] pastor with a congregation in [[Berlin]]. Rittelmeyer asked if it was possible to create a more modern form of Christianity. Soon others joined Rittelmeyer — mostly [[Protestant]] pastors, but including several [[Roman Catholic]] priests. Steiner offered counsel on renewing the [[sacrament]]s of their various services, combining Catholicism's emphasis on the rites of a sacred tradition with the emphasis on [[freedom of thought]] and a personal relationship to religious life characteristic of modern, Johannine Christianity.<ref name="Essential"/> Steiner made it clear, however, that the resulting movement for the renewal of [[Christianity]], which became known as "[[The Christian Community]]", was a personal gesture of help to a movement founded by Rittelmeyer and others independently of the [[Anthroposophical Society]].<ref name="Essential"/> The distinction was important to Steiner because he sought with Anthroposophy to create a scientific, not [[faith]]-based, spirituality.<ref name="Willmann"/> For those who wished to find more traditional forms, however, a renewal of the traditional religions was also a vital need of the times. ==Reception and controversy== {{see also|Anthroposophy#Reception_of_anthroposophy|}} Steiner's work has influenced a broad range of noted personalities. Among these have been many writers, artists and musicians; these include [[Inklings|Inkling]] and [[philosopher]] [[Owen Barfield]], [[Pulitzer Prize]]-winning [[Nobel Laureate]] [[Saul Bellow]],<ref>Robert Fulford, "Bellow: the novelist as homespun philosopher", The National Post, October 23, 2000</ref> [[Andrej Belyj]],<ref>[http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/bely.htm Andrey Bely<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref>J.D. Elsworth, ''Andrej Bely:A Critical Study of the Novels'', Cambridge:1983, cf. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0036-0341(198601)45%3A1%3C53%3AABACSO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-K]</ref> [[Josef Beuys]]<ref>John F. Moffitt, "Occultism in Avant-Garde Art: The Case of Joseph Beuys", ''Art Journal'', Vol. 50, No. 1, (Spring, 1991), pp. 96-98</ref>, [[Michael Chekhov]], [[Michael Ende]], [[Wassily Kandinsky]],<ref>Peg Weiss, "Kandinsky and Old Russia: The Artist as Ethnographer and Shaman", ''The Slavic and East European Journal'', Vol. 41, No. 2 (Summer, 1997), pp. 371-373</ref><ref>[http://www.artsablaze.co.uk/News/kandinsky.htm Kandinsky: The Path to Abstraction 1908 - 1922<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Nobel Laureates [[Selma Lagerlöf]]<ref>[http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1909/lagerlof-bio.html Selma Lagerlöf - Biography<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> and [[Albert Schweitzer]], [[Andrei Tarkovsky]],<ref>[http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~tstronds/nostalghia.com/TheTopics/Layla.html [ Nostalghia.com | The Topics :: Layla Alexander Garrett on Tarkovsky &#93;<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> [[Richard Tarnas]] and [[Bruno Walter]].<ref>Bruno Walter, "Mein Weg zur Anthroposophie". In: ''Das Goetheanum'' 52 (1961), 418–2</ref> Olav Hammer, though sharply critical of esoteric movements generally, terms Steiner "arguably the most historically and philosophically sophisticated spokesperson of the [[Esoteric]] Tradition."<ref name=Hammer>Olav Hammer, ''Claiming Knowledge: Strategies of Epistemology from Theosophy to the New Age'', Brill 2004, pp. 329; 64f; 225-8; 176. See also p. 98, where Hammer states that - unusually for founders of esoteric movements - Steiner's self-descriptions of the origins of his thought and work correspond to the view of external historians.</ref> ===Scientism=== Critics such as [[Olav Hammer]] have critiqued as [[scientism]] Steiner's attempt to use a scientific methodology to investigate spiritual phenomena based upon his claims of clairvoyant experience and his placing "spiritual science" above the natural sciences.<ref name=Hammer/> Steiner regarded the "observations" of spiritual research as more dependable (and above all, consistent) than observations of physical reality yet considered spiritual research as fallible<ref name=Zander2/><!-- p. 618 --> and, perhaps surprisingly, held the view that anyone capable of thinking logically was in a position to correct errors by spiritual researchers.<ref>Steiner: "It may even happen that a researcher who has the power of perception in supersensible realms may fall into error in his logical presentation, and that someone who has no supersensible perception, but who has the capacity for sound thinking, may correct him."[http://wn.rsarchive.org/Books/GA013/English/AP1972/GA013_c04-01.html Occult Science, Chapter IV]</ref> See [[Anthroposophy#Scientific_basis|further details of this discussion]] ===Race and ethnicity=== In an exhaustive study, Helmut Zander concludes that "whether a given reader interprets Anthroposophy as racist or not depends upon that reader's concerns."<ref name=Zander>"Es hängt dabei von den Interessen der Leser ab, ob die Anthroposophie rassistisch interpretiert wird oder nicht." Helmut Zander, "Sozialdarwinistische Rassentheorien aus dem okkulten Untergrund des Kaiserreichs", in Puschner et al., Handbuch zur "Völkischen Bewegung" 1871-1918: 1996.</ref> This is partly because Steiner's comments about race are inconsistent in a way typical of his times. On the one hand, he characterized specific [[Race (classification of human beings)|race]]s, [[nation]]s, and [[ethnicity|ethnicities]], each of which he believed to have a unique essence or "folk soul",<ref name=Hammer/> in ways that have been termed [[racism|racist]] by critics,<ref>Arno Frank, "Einschüchterung auf Waldorf-Art", ''Die Tageszeitung'' Aug 4, 2000.</ref> including: * Characterizations of various races and ethnic groups as backward or destined to disappear.<ref name=Zander/> * Hierarchical views of the spiritual evolution of different races,<ref>Corinna Treitel, ''A Science for the Soul: Occultism and the Genesis of the German Modern'', Johns Hopkins Press, ISBN 0-8018-7812-8, p. 103</ref> including - at times, and inconsistently - placing the [[white race]], and more particularly the [[Germanic people]], at the high-point of human [[evolution]], though portraying these as destined to be superseded by other peoples and races in the future.<ref name=Zander/> On the other hand, Steiner emphasized the core spiritual unity of all the world's peoples and sharply criticized racial prejudice, stating his beliefs that: * The individual nature of any person stands higher than any racial, ethnic, national or religious affiliation,<ref name="Essential"/><ref name="CL">p.55</ref> * Race and [[ethnicity]] are transient, not essential aspects of the individual, especially since in Steiner's view each individual [[reincarnation|incarnates in many different peoples and races]] over successive lives, thus bearing within him- or herself a range of races and peoples.<ref>Eugen Blume, "Joseph Beuys". In Kugler and Baur, ''Rudolf Steiner in Kunst und Architektur'', ISBN 3832190120, p. 186</ref><ref name=Zander/> * Race is rapidly losing any remaining significance for [[humanity]].<ref name=Zander/> ====Judaism==== *Steiner published a series of articles attacking various manifestations of [[Antisemitism]]<ref>''Mitteilungen aus dem Verein zur Abwehr des Antisemitismus'', '''11'''(37):307-8, 11 September 1901. [http://mdz1.bib-bvb.de/cocoon/abwehr/Blatt_bsb00000905,00315.html Article]. ''Mitteilungen'', '''11'''(38):316, 18 September 1901. [http://mdz1.bib-bvb.de/cocoon/abwehr/Blatt_bsb00000905,00324.html?prozent= Article]. Cf. GA31 for a complete list and text of articles.</ref> and criticizing some of the most prominent anti-Semites of the time as "barbaric" and "enemies of culture".<ref name=HuH>[http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=5&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdb.swr.de%2Fupload%2Fmanuskriptdienst%2Fwissen%2Fwi20041122_2812.rtf&ei=vDFgR-C5JKjKhgL4ouzDDw&usg=AFQjCNHpSzuysbwzsQSwybO6S4i3U1fuEA&sig2=1WOvhSIPQhqzZqEOPDwvXQ "Hammer und Hakenkreuz – Anthroposophie im Visier der völkischen Bewegung"], ''Südwestrundfunk'', 26 Nov. 2004</ref> *Massive defamatory press attacks against Steiner were undertaken by early [[National Socialist]] leaders (including [[Adolf Hitler]]) and other right-wing nationalists. These criticized Steiner's thought, and [[Anthroposophy]], as being incompatible with National Socialist [[racist]] ideology and charged both that Steiner was influenced by his close connections with [[Jews]] and that he was himself Jewish.<ref name=HuH/><ref name=Werner/> *Steiner promoted full [[Jewish assimilation|assimilation]] of the Jewish people into the nations in which they lived, a stance which has come under criticism in recent years.<ref name=Zander/> ==References== {{Reflist|2}} ==Bibliography== {{wikisource-author}} Many works are available in web versions through [http://wn.rsarchive.org the Rudolf Steiner Archive]. Many audio recordings of his written works are available through [http://www.rudolfsteineraudio.com/ Rudolf Steiner Audio]. The full German texts of all of Steiner's published works is searchable at [http://www.rudolf-steiner.com/index.php?70 the Rudolf Steiner Archive]. A list of all English translations of all works by Steiner is available at [http://www.rudolfsteinerweb.com/Rudolf_Steiner_Works.php this site]. Out of the 350 volumes of his collected works (including more than forty volumes containing his writings, and over 6000 published lectures), some of the more significant works include ===Steiner's writings=== * [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Books/GA001/English/MP1988/GA001_index.html Goethean Science] (1883 – 1897) * [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Books/GA003/TaK/GA003_index.html ''Truth and Knowledge''] (doctoral thesis), 1892 * [http://www.rsarchive.org/Books/GA004/POSA/ ''Intuitive thinking as a spiritual path''], also published as the [[Philosophy of Freedom]]'' (1894) ISBN 088010385X * [http://www.rsarchive.org/Books/GA002/ ''Theory of Knowledge Implicit in Goethe's World-Conception''] (1886) * [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Books/GA007/English/GA007_index.html ''Mysticism at the Dawn of Modern Age''] (1901/1925) * [http://www.rsarchive.org/Books/GA008/ ''Christianity as Mystical Fact''] (1902) * [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Books/GA011/CM/GA011_index.html ''Cosmic Memory: Prehistory of Earth and Man''] (1904) * [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Books/GA009/English/GA009_index.html ''Theosophy: An Introduction to the Spiritual Processes in Human Life and in the Cosmos''] (1904) ISBN 0-88010-373-6 *[http://wn.rsarchive.org/Books/GA010/English/GA010_index.html ''How to Know Higher Worlds: A Modern Path of Initiation''] (1904-5) ISBN 0-88010-508-9 * [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Articles/EduChi_index.html ''The Education of the Child''], (1907) ISBN 0-85440-620-4 * [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Books/GA013/English/AP1972/ ''An Outline of Esoteric Science''] (1910) ISBN 0-88010-409-0 * ''[http://wn.rsarchive.org/Books/GA014/English/APC1925/GA014_index.html Four Mystery Dramas''] (1913) * ''[http://wn.rsarchive.org/Books/GA024/English/AP1985/GA024_index.html The Renewal of the Social Organism''] (1919) * [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Articles/FuSoLa_index.html ''Reordering of Society: The Fundamental Social Law''] (1919) (article) * [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Books/GA027/English/RSP1983/GA027_index.html ''Fundamentals of Therapy: An Extension of the Art of Healing Through Spiritual Knowledge''] (1925) * [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Books/GA028/TSoML/GA028_index.html ''The Story of my Life''] (1924-5) (autobiography) ===Steiner's lectures=== The subjects of the over 6,000 published lectures by Steiner are classified by the [http://www.rudolf-steiner.com/index.php?44 publisher] as follows ([http://www.rudolf-steiner.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Allgemein/katalog.pdf see complete catalog in pdf format)]: ''General anthroposophy'' *public lectures *lectures for workmen at the Goetheanum *lectures for members of the Anthroposophical Society ** [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/EsoCosmo/EsoCos_index.html ''An Esoteric Cosmology''] (1906) ** [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/EastWest/EasWes_index.html ''The East in the Light of the West''] (1909) ** [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/ManOccult/ManOcc_index.html ''Man in the Light of Occultism, Theosophy and Philosophy''] (1912) ** [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/BalWorld/BalWld_index.html ''Balance in the World and Man, Lucifer and Ahriman'' ] (1914) ** [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/PreSix_index.html ''Preparing for the Sixth Epoch''] (1915) ** [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Articles/SupKno_index.html ''Supersensible Knowledge''] (1916) ** [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/CosHuMet/CosMet_index.html ''Cosmic and Human Metamorphoses''] (1917) ** [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/EvlMan_index.html ''Evil and the Future of Man''] (1918) ** [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Articles/OnSoul/OnSoul_index.html ''On the life of the Soul''] (1923) ** [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/ManSymphony/ManSym_index.html ''Man as Symphony of the Creative Word''] (1923) ** ''Anthroposophy and the Inner Life'' (1924) ** [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Articles/DeaBir_index.html ''Knowledge of the State Between Death and a New Birth''] (1926?) *lectures for members of the School of Spiritual Science *lectures about karma and reincarnation ** [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/ManfKarma/ManKar_index.html ''Manifestations of Karma''] (1910) ** [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Articles/ReinKarma/ReKarm_index.html ''Reincarnation and Karma: How Karma Works''] (1922) **Buermann, Uwe, ''Die Anschauung des Karma bei Rudolf Steiner''. Verlag Freies Geistesleben, 2006. ISBN 3-7725-1912-1 ''Education and science'' *Education ** [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/StudyMan/StuMan_index.html ''Study of Man''], (1918) ** ''Practical Advice To Teachers'', (1919) ISBN 0880104678 *Medicine **''Medicine: An Introductory Reader'' (ed. Andrew Maendl, M.D.) ISBN 1-85584-133-9. ** [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/SpiSciMed/SpiSci_index.html ''Spiritual Science and Medicine''] (1920) ** [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/PhysTher/PhysTh_index.html ''Physiology and Therapeutics''] (1920) ** [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/FundAnthro/FunAnt_index.html ''Fundamentals of Anthroposophical Medicine''] (1922) ** [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/HumHrt_index.html ''The Human Heart''] (1922) *Science ** [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/LightCrse/LitCrs_index.html ''First Scientific Lecture: The Light Course''] (1919-20) ** ''The Origins of Natural Science'' (1923). ISBN 0-88010-140-7 *Agriculture **''[http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/Agri1958/Ag1958_index.html Agriculture Course]'', (1924) ISBN 1-85584-148-7 *Sociology ** [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/SocUnd_index.html ''Social Understanding Through Spiritual Scientific Knowledge''] (1919) ** [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/SocFor_index.html ''Social and Anti-Social Forces in the Human Being'' ] (1918) *Economics ** [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/WorldEcon/WldEco_index.html ''World Economy''], (1922) ISBN 0-85440-266-7 ''Religion'' *Christianity **[http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/DeedChrist/DeedCh_index.html ''The Deed of Christ and the Opposing Spiritual Powers: Lucifer, Ahriman, Asuras. Mephistopheles and Earthquakes.]'' (1909) ** [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/BhagPaul/BhaPau_index.html ''The Bhagavad Gita and the Epistles of St. Paul''] (1912-13) ISBN 9780880106047 ** [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/AntChr_index.html ''Anthroposophy and Christianity''] (1914) ISBN 9780880101493 ** [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/FifthGosFTS/FiGFTS_index.html The Fifth Gospel], (1913) ISBN 1-85584-039-1 ** [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/PreEar_index.html ''Pre-Earthly Deeds of Christ''] (1914) ISBN 0919924018 ** [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/SelKno_index.html ''Self Knowledge and the Christ Experience''] (1923) ISBN 0880102098 *lectures for The Christian Community ===Works about Steiner by other authors=== * Ahern, Geoffrey ''Sun at Midnight. The Rudolf Steiner Movement and the Western Esoteric Tradition'' 1984, ISBN 0-85030-338-9 * Almon, Joan (ed.) ''Meeting Rudolf Steiner'', firsthand experiences compiled from the ''Journal for Anthroposophy'' since 1960, ISBN 0-9674562-8-2 * Childs, Gilbert, ''Rudolf Steiner: His Life and Work, ISBN 0-88010-391-4 * Davy, Adams and Merry, ''A Man Before Others: Rudolf Steiner Remembered''. Rudolf Steiner Press, 1993. * Easton, Stewart, ''Rudolf Steiner: Herald of a New Epoch'', ISBN 0-910142-93-9 * Hemleben, Johannes and Twyman,Leo, ''Rudolf Steiner: An Illustrated Biography''. Rudolf Steiner Press, 2001. * [[Gary Valentine Lachman|Lachman, Gary]], ''Rudolf Steiner: An Introduction to His Life and Work'', 2007, ISBN 1-58542-543-5 * Lindenberg, Christoph, ''Rudolf Steiner: Eine Biographie'' (2 vols.). Stuttgart, 1997, ISBN 3-7725-1551-7 * Lissau, Rudi, ''Rudolf Steiner: Life, Work, Inner Path and Social Initiatives''. Hawthorne Press, 2000. * [[Robert A. McDermott|McDermott, Robert]], ''The Essential Steiner''. Harper Press, 1984 * Seddon, Richard, ''Rudolf Steiner''. North Atlantic Books, 2004. * Shepherd, A.P., ''Rudolf Steiner: Scientist of the Invisible''. Inner Traditions, 1990. * Schiller, Paul, ''Rudolf Steiner and Initiation''. Steiner Books, 1990. * Swassjan, Karen, ''The Ultimate Communion of Mankind: A Celebration of Rudolf Steiner's Book "The Philosophy of Freedom"'', ISBN 0-904693-82-1 * Tummer, Lia and Lato, Horacio, ''Rudolf Steiner and Anthroposophy for Beginners''. Writers & Readers Publishing, 2001. * Turgeniev, Assya, ''Reminiscences of Rudolf Steiner and Work on the First Goetheanum'', ISBN 1-902636-40-6 * Welburn, Andrew, ''Rudolf Steiner's Philosophy and the Crisis of Contemporary Thought'', ISBN 0-86315-436-0 * Wilkinson, Roy, ''Rudolf Steiner: An Introduction to his Spiritual World-View'', ISBN 1-902636-28-7 == External links == {{sisterlinks|Rudolf Steiner}} ===General=== * [http://www.goetheanum.ch/ Goetheanum] * [http://www.RudolfSteinerWeb.com/ Rudolf Steiner Overview] * [http://www.anthroposophy.net/ The Anthroposophy Network] * [http://www.anthros.net/ Anthros.net - webguide for Anthroposophy] * [http://www.calendarofthesoul.net The Calendar of the Soul] * [http://www.forteantimes.com/features/profiles/109/rudolf_steiner.html Article about Steiner by Gary Lachman published in the Fortean Times] * [http://www.anthroposophy.org/ The Anthroposophical Society in America] * [http://www.anthroposophy.org/newslinks.php In the News about the anthroposophical movement] * [http://anthro.webhost4life.com/ U.S. Directory of Initiatives] ===Writings=== * {{gutenberg author| id=Steiner+Rudolf | name=Rudolf Steiner}} * [http://www.rsarchive.com/ The Rudolf Steiner Archive] * [http://www.anthropress.org/ Steiner Books Press] * [http://rslibrary.anthroposophy.org/ Steiner lending library] * [http://www.philosophyoffreedom.com/index.php Philosophy of Freedom website] * [http://rudolfsteineraudio.com/ Rudolf Steiner Audio] ===Practical activities=== * [http://www.emerson.org.uk/ Emerson College in the UK] * [http://www.rsfsocialfinance.org/ Rudolf Steiner Foundation (dba RSF Social Finance)] * [http://awsna.org/ Association of Waldorf Schools of North America] * [http://www.steinerwaldorf.org.uk/ Steiner/Waldorf Schools Fellowship of the UK] * [http://camphillassociation.org/ Camphill Association] * [http://www.thechristiancommunity.org/ The Christian Community] * [http://www.biodynamics.com/ Biodynamic Farming & Gardening Association] ===Articles about Steiner=== *[http://www.ibe.unesco.org/publications/ThinkersPdf/steinere.pdf Heiner Ullrich, "Rudolf Steiner"], ''Prospects: the quarterly review of comparative education'' (Paris, UNESCO: International Bureau of Education), vol.XXIV, no. 3/4, 1994, p. 555-572 *[http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?id=1vq88hgzd1kmsc4tc8mgm71svpt2zts0 Rudolf Steiner: 'Scientist of the Invisible' ] (Carlin Romano, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Volume 53, Issue 37, 2007, p. B16) * [http://skepdic.com/steiner.html Skeptics Dictionary] ===Further interest=== * [http://www.antroposofi.no/historie/Motzstrase30%20Berlin.pdf See photos from Motzstraße 30, Schöneberg, Berlin, where Rudolf Steiner lived from 1903 to 1923.] * [http://www.halloran.com/rsteiner.gif Steiner's astrological birth chart] <!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]] --> {{Persondata |NAME= Steiner, Rudolf |ALTERNATIVE NAMES= |SHORT DESCRIPTION=[[Austrians|Austrian]] philosopher, literary scholar, educator, artist, playwright, social thinker, and [[Esotericism|esotericist]] |DATE OF BIRTH=[[25 February]] [[1861]] |PLACE OF BIRTH=[[Donji Kraljevec]], [[Croatia]] |DATE OF DEATH=[[30 March]] [[1925]] |PLACE OF DEATH=[[Dornach]], [[Switzerland]] }} {{BD|1861|1925|Steiner, Rudolf}} [[Category:Rudolf Steiner| ]] [[Category:20th century philosophers]] [[Category:Alternative education]] [[Category:Anthroposophy]] [[Category:Anthroposophists]] [[Category:Austrian dramatists and playwrights]] [[Category:Austrian philosophers]] [[Category:Austrian spiritual writers]] [[Category:Austrian Theosophists]] [[Category:Austrian architects]][[Category:Educationists]] [[Category:Esoteric Christianity]] [[Category:Expressionist architects]] [[Category:German-language philosophers]] [[Category:Modernist architects]] [[Category:Spiritual teachers]] [[Category:University of Rostock alumni]] [[Category:Western mystics]] [[bs:Rudolf Steiner]] [[bg:Рудолф Щайнер]] [[cs:Rudolf Steiner]] [[da:Rudolf Steiner]] [[de:Rudolf Steiner]] [[es:Rudolf Steiner]] [[eo:Rudolf Steiner]] [[fa:رودولف اشتاینر]] [[fr:Rudolf Steiner]] [[ko:루돌프 슈타이너]] [[hr:Rudolf Steiner]] [[it:Rudolf Steiner]] [[he:רודולף שטיינר]] [[hu:Rudolf Steiner]] [[nl:Rudolf Steiner]] [[ja:ルドルフ・シュタイナー]] [[no:Rudolf Steiner]] [[pl:Rudolf Steiner]] [[pt:Rudolf Steiner]] [[ro:Rudolf Steiner]] [[ru:Штейнер, Рудольф]] [[sq:Rudolf Steiner]] [[sk:Rudolf Steiner]] [[sl:Rudolf Steiner]] [[sr:Рудолф Штајнер]] [[sh:Rudolf Steiner]] [[fi:Rudolf Steiner]] [[sv:Rudolf Steiner]] [[zh:魯道夫·斯坦納]]