Rudolf Steiner (February 27, 1861–March 30, 1925) was an Austrian philosopher, literary scholar, architect, playwright and educator, who is best known as the founder of Anthroposophy and its practical applications, including Waldorf School, Biodynamic agriculture, the Camphill Movement , and the Christian Community.

Steiner saw history as essentially shaped by changes formed through a progressive development of human consciousness. The activity of individualised human thinking was seen as a relatively recent advance which led to the dramatic developments of the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution. He saw the realm of the spiritual related to the realm of the physical in part through the activity of human thinking. Steiner characterized his system of Anthroposophy with the following words:

"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."

-Rudolf Steiner, Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts (1904)

My meeting with Rudolf Steiner led me to occupy myself with him from that time forth and to remain always aware of his significance. We both felt the same obligation to lead man once again to true inner culture. I have rejoiced at the achievements his great personality and his profound humanity have brought about in the world."

- Albert Schweitzer

Contents

1 Goethean scholar and philosopher 2 Waldorf education 3 Architecture, eurythmy and free spiritual culture 4 Weleda, biodynamic farming, Camphill 5 Social threefolding 6 Steiner criticism 7 Selected bibliography 8 External links

Goethean scholar and philosopher

Steiner's father was a huntsman in the service of Count Hoyos in Geras, and later became a telegraph operator and stationmaster on the Southern Austrian Railway. When Rudolf was born, his father was stationed in Kraljević in the Međimurje region, present-day northernmost Croatia, then part of Austria-Hungary. When he was two years old, the family moved into Burgenland, Austria, in the foothills of the eastern Alps.

Steiner displayed a keen and early interest in mathematics and philosophy. From 1879-1883 he attended the Technische Hochschule (Technical University) in Vienna, where he concentrated on mathematics, physics, and chemistry. In 1891, with his thesis Truth and Knowledge, he earned a doctorate in philosophy at the University of Rostock in Germany.

In 1888, Steiner was invited by Grand Duchess Sophie of Saxony to edit the complete edition of Goethe's scientific works in Weimar, where he worked until 1896. During this time he also collaborated in a complete edition of Arthur Schopenhauer's work.

He wrote his seminal philosophical work, Die Philosophie der Freiheit (The Philosophy of Freedom) in 1894. It advocated the possibility that humans can become spiritually free beings through the conscious activity of thinking. The claim he made in this book to have disproved transcendental idealism, the philosophy of Immanuel Kant—he had read the whole of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason by the age of 14—has been rejected by some philosophers, accepted by others, and remains unknown to most. Richard Tarnas, in his book The Passion of the Western Mind, includes Steiner as one significant figure within the whole history of thought. Tarnas wrote,

...at almost precisely the same time that the Enlightenment reached its philosophical climax in Kant, a radically different epistemological perspective began to emerge—first visible in Goethe...developed in new directions by Schiller, Schelling, Hegel, Coleridge, and Emerson, and articulated within the past century by Rudolf Steiner. Each of these thinkers gave his own distinct emphasis to the developing perspective, but common to all was a fundamental conviction that the relation of the human mind to the world was ultimately not dualistic but participatory...In essence this alternative conception did not oppose the Kantian epistemology but rather went beyond it, subsuming it in a larger and subtler understanding of human knowledge. The new conception fully acknowledged the validity of Kant's critical insight, that all human knowledge of the world is in some sense determined by subjective principles; but instead of considering these principles as belonging ultimately to the separate human subject, and therefore not grounded in the world independent of human cognition, this participatory conception held that these subjective principles are in fact an expression of the world's own being, and that the human mind is ultimately the organ of the world's own process of self-revelation. In this view, the essential reality of nature is not separate, self-contained, and complete in itself, so that the human mind can examine it 'objectively' and register it from without. Rather, nature's unfolding truth emerges only with the active participation of the human mind. Nature's reality is not merely phenomenal, nor is it independent and objective; rather, it is something that comes into being through the very act of human cognition. Nature becomes intelligible to itself through the human mind. - Richard Tarnas, p.433-434, 1991.

On the basis of this epistemology, Steiner attempted to develop a qualitative science to complement the quantitative science of Newton, Galileo and Einstein. Steiner claimed that if one practiced various systematic forms of inner discipline, it would be possible to create an increasingly objective, testable knowledge of a noumenal or spiritual world. While small groups of scientists find brilliant originality in Steiner's scientific work and seek to carry it forward (see, for example, The Wholeness of Nature by physicist Henri Bortoft), the majority of scientists have never heard of Steiner, and of the few who have, most take his work to be unscientific. Scientists developing Steiner's work argue that it sometimes doesn't receive a fair hearing because of prejudice against even the possibility of a qualitative science of non-physical worlds.

In 1896, Friedrich Nietzsche's sister, Forster-Nietzsche, asked Steiner to set the Nietzsche archive in Naumburg in order. Her brother by that time was no longer compos mentis. Forster-Nietzsche introduced Steiner into the presence of the catatonic philosopher and Steiner, deeply moved, subsequently wrote the book Friedrich Nietzsche, Fighter for Freedom (arguably one of Steiner's less important works).

In 1897, Steiner moved to Berlin to edit the Magazin für Literatur.

A turning-point came when, in the August 28, 1899 issue of the magazine, he published an article entitled "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 Theosophists on the subject of Nietzsche. He continued speaking regularly to the members of the Theosophical Society, eventually becoming the leader of its German Section.

Differences he held from the Theosophists—primarily that he did not share the view that their much-hailed J. Krishnamurti was the reincarnation of Jesus (before Krishnamurti himself shredded this messianic label and rejected theosophy), and Steiner's efforts to encourage more artistic activity within the Society—led to his expulsion from that Society and founding of the Anthroposophical Society in 1912. Most of the German members of the Theosophical Society as well left the organization to join the new Anthroposophical Society.

Rudolf Steiner died in 1925 in Dornach , Switzerland.

Waldorf education

In 1919 Emil Molt , on behalf of workers of the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart, invited him to lecture on the topic of education. This, and subsequent lectures, formed the basis for the Waldorf School movement—perhaps the largest independent schooling system in the world. As of 2004, there are some 870 schools worldwide, including about 170 in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

Architecture, eurythmy and free spiritual culture

Steiner developed an organic style of architecture for the design and construction of some seventeen buildings. Of these, the most important are the first and second Goetheanums. These two structures, both built in Dornach , Switzerland (the first beginning in 1913), were intended to house a University for Spiritual Science.

The first Goetheanum was burned down by arsonists on New Year's eve 1922. Several surrounding buildings which he designed (the Glasshaus, Haus Duldeck, the Transformerhaus, etc.) survived the blaze.

Construction of the second Goetheanum building began on the same site shortly before he died in 1925. He concieved it as an organic extension and metamorphosis of the first building, inspiring and pre-dating architects such as Le Corbusier, and Eero Saarinen's Kennedy Airport (1962).

The Goetheanum was seen as a cultural centre which included activities in scientific, mathematical, and numerological research, biodynamic farming , medicine, and schools of drama, speech, painting, and sculpture.

It was within the Society that he met his wife Marie von Sievers, with whom he developed a new artform that also has therapeutic uses, known as Eurythmy (German: "Eurythmie")—sometimes referred to as "visible speech and visible song". Performances are still held at the Goetheanum in Dornach, and at various theatres throughout the world. There are now a number of Eurythmy schools where a full four-year training is given.

As a sculptor, his primary work was The Representative of Humanity (1922). This enormous work carved in wood is on display at the Goetheanum in Dornach.

As Playwright, he wrote four "Mystery Dramas" between 1909 and 1913, including "The Portal of Initiation" and "The Soul's Awakening". They are still performed today.

Weleda, biodynamic farming, Camphill

A philosophic basis rooted in a practical sensibility yielded continuations to his work. In 1921, pharmacists and physicians gathered under Steiner's guidance to create a pharmaceutical company called Weleda, which now distributes natural medical products worldwide.

In 1924, a lecture to a group of farmers concerned about the destructive trend of "scientific farming" originated the practice of biodynamic agriculture, which is now practiced throughout much of Europe, North America, and Australasia. This is not quite the same as the more general concept of organic farming, since e.g. it also takes the phases of the moon into consideration.

In 1939, Doctor Karl Konig founded the Camphill Movement in Scotland as a place to provide treatment for children with severe learning disabilities. There are currently more than a dozen Camphill Villages and eight Colleges providing a home for more than 1000 residents.

Social threefolding

Steiner the Activist

For a period after World War I, Steiner was extremely active and well-known in Germany in part because in many places he gave lectures 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, Die Kernpunkte der Sozialen Frage (available in English today as 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, incorporated in 1984, and as of 2004 with estmated 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."

Steiner's Outlook on Social History

In Steiner's various writings and lectures he held that there were three main spheres of power comprising human society: the cultural, the economic and the political. In ancient times, those who had political power were also generally those with the greatest cultural/religious power and the greatest economic power. Culture, State and Economy were fused (for example in ancient Egypt). With the emergence of classical Greece and Rome, the three spheres began to become more autonomous. This autonomy went on increasing over the centuries, and with the slow rise of egalitarianism and individualism, the failure adequately to separate economics, politics and culture was felt increasingly as a source of injustice.

Examples of the Kinds of Threefold Separations Steiner Wanted Strengthened

Increased separation between the State and the economy

A rich man should be prevented from buying politicians and laws. A politician shouldn’t be able to parlay his political position into riches earned by doing favors for businessmen. Slavery is unjust, because it takes something political, a person’s inalienable rights, and absorbs them into the economic process of buying and selling. Steiner also advocated more cooperatively organized forms of capitalism (what might today be called stakeholder capitalism) precisely because conventional shareholder capitalism tends to absorb the State and human rights into the economic process and transform them into mere commodities.

Increased separation between the State and cultural life

A government should not be able to control culture; i.e., how people think, learn, or worship. A particular religion or ideology should not control the levers of the State. Steiner held that pluralism and freedom were the ideal for education and cultural life.

Increased separation between the economy and cultural life

A corporation should not be able to control the cultural sphere, for example by using economic power to bribe schools into accepting ‘educational’ programs larded with advertising, or by secretly paying scientists to produce research results favorable to the business’s economic interests. The fact that churches, temples and mosques do not make the ability to pay a criterion of the ability to enter and participate, and that libraries and museums are open to all free of charge, is in tune with Steiner’s notion of a separation between cultural and economic life. In a similar spirit, Steiner held that all families, not just rich ones, should have access to independent schools for their children and freedom of choice in education.

Education's Relation to the State and the Economy

Steiner’s view of education’s social position calls for special comment. For Steiner, separation of the cultural sphere from the political and economic spheres meant education should be available to all children regardless of the ability of families to pay for it and, on the elementary and secondary level, should be provided for by private and|or state scholarships that a family could direct to the school of its choice. Steiner was a supporter of educational freedom, but was flexible, and understood that a few legal restrictions on schools (such as health and safety laws), provided they were kept to an absolute minimum, would be necessary and justified.

"Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" and Three Examples of Macrosocial Imbalance

Steiner held that the French Revolution’s slogan, “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,” expressed in an unconscious way the distinct needs of the three social spheres at the present time: liberty in cultural life, equality in a democratic political life, and (uncoerced) fraternity/sorority in economic life. According to Steiner, these values, each one applied to its proper social realm, would tend to keep the cultural, economic and political realms from merging unjustly, and allow these realms to check, balance and correct one another. The result would be a society-wide separation of powers. Steiner argued that increased autonomy for the three spheres would not eliminate their mutual influence, but would cause that influence to be exerted in a more healthy and legitimate manner, because the increased separation would prevent any one of the three spheres from dominating. In the past, according to Steiner, lack of autonomy had tended to make each sphere merge in a servile or domineering way with the others.

For example, under theocracy, the cultural sphere (in the form of a religious impulse) fuses with and dominates the economic and political spheres. Under communism, the political sphere fuses with and dominates the other two spheres. And under the typical sort of capitalist conditions, the economic sphere tends to dominate the other two spheres. Steiner points toward social conditions where domination by any one sphere is increasingly reduced, so that theocracy, communism, and the standard kind of capitalism might all be gradually transcended.

For Steiner, threefolding was not a social recipe or blueprint. It could not be "implemented" like some utopian program in a day, a decade, or even a century. It was a complex open process that began thousands of years ago and that he thought was likely to continue for thousands more.

Apart from his central book on social questions, Toward Social Renewal, there are at least two others available in English: World Economy (14 lectures from 1922) and The Social Future (revised edition 1972).

Steiner criticism

While some of the more practical aspects of Steiner's teaching, such as his architecture, biodynamic farming, the care of those with special needs, etc., have been received positively outside the Anthroposophic movement itself, much of the work outlining basic principles and the elaboration of a "science of the spirit" has not yet been absorbed into the mainstream to the extent Steiner would have wished. There are many intellectuals of stature who admire Steiner's efforts to transform thinking into a mode of perceiving the spiritual world. See, for example, physicist Henri Bortoft's The Wholeness of Nature, physicist Arthur Zajonc's Catching the Light, physicist Georg Unger's Forming Concepts in Physics, physicist Stephen Edelglass' The Marriage of Sense and Thought, computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum's Computer Power and Human Reason, biologist Craig Holdrege's Genetics and the Manipulation of Life, chemist Georg Khulewind's From Normal to Healthy, philosopher Owen Barfield's World's Apart, philosopher Richard Tarnas' Passion of the Western Mind, cultural critic Theodore Roszak's Unfinished Animal, or Albert Schweitzer's comments about Steiner. Steiner however remains unknown or rejected by many others, for two main reasons.

One point of view is that his statements 'about' the non-physical worlds are sometimes taken more literally than they were meant, and due to that misunderstanding are then rejected. Steiner's 'spiritual' statements are in fact meant neither figuratively nor literally, but instead ply a little-known range between those two extremes, and seek to approach the literal via the figurative. But the course of past centuries has predisposed the great majority of people to be able to understand only language that is either poetic or purely literal. Thus Steiner is frequently misunderstood. And even if one is forewarned and determined to understand Steiner in his own terms, his way of using language -- the Imaginative approaching the Literal -- sometimes makes him as difficult of access as any of the great thinkers of history. Yet according to those of Steiner's students who claim to have penetrated the new mode of poetic yet systematic cognition that Steiner pioneered, his manner of thinking (not what he thought, but rather how he thought) leads to a kind of superconscious awareness of non-physical worlds. Steiner now and then emphasized that the 'how' of his thinking, the process, was more important than the 'what', the result. The process was imaginative activity. The result could be falsely treated as 'information' in some overly literal sense.

An alternative approach to this matter is that he quite literally meant that non-physical worlds do exist and can be approached and accessed through appropriate training. However, such ideas do not fit well within the current scientific paradigm, and so are rejected and pushed to the periphery of current thought.

The high regard in which Steiner is held within the Anthroposopical movement, which sees his teaching as foundational, has prompted some critics to see Steiner as a founder of a cult-like religion, not as a philosopher in the usual sense of the word. If there is a degree of truth in this, it is possible that most of the blame should go not to Steiner, but to his students. Steiner frequently asked his students to test everything he said, and not to take his statements on authority or faith. He also said that if it had been practicable, he would have changed the name of his teachings every day, to keep people from hanging on to the literal meaning of those teachings, and to stay true to their character as something intended to be alive and metamorphic. Nor was Steiner shy about saying that his works would gradually become obsolete, and that each generation should rewrite them. Individual freedom and spiritual independence are among the values Steiner most emphasized in his books and lectures.

Steiner's views of Christianity have been criticized as heretical. For example, his view that there were two Jesus children involved in the Incarnation (one child descended from Solomon, the other from Nathan—Jesus was a common name.); that the divine "Christ Spirit", the Son-God of the Trinity, incarnated at the moment of the baptism by John; that up until the moment of the baptism by John in the Jordan, Jesus was a very great holy man, but not yet the divine Son of God; that "the Christ Being" is not only the Redeemer of the Fall from Paradise, but also the unique pivot and meaning of earth's evolutionary processes and of human history; that Yahveh (Jehovah) dwelt in the moon, but Elohim in the Sun; and that the second coming of the Christ meant the Christ would, for slowly increasing numbers of people, become manifest in the etheric realm beginning around the year 1933. (Steiner was not referring to the hypothetical ether of 19th century physicists, and on several occasions carefully distinguished his own use of the term from their use of it.)

Occasionally Steiner is criticized for his advice to delay reading until students reach the age 6 or 7. Still, a government commission in Germany conducted a study in the 1990s and found that German Waldorf school (Steiner school) graduates scored significantly higher than German public school graduates on the Abitur, a high school graduate exam widely administered in Germany. The significance of this finding is questionable, because not all Waldorf students are admitted to prepare for the Abitur.

Some critics say the Waldorf schools' emphasis on imagination and creativity can sometimes lead to child-led class sessions without focus or direction.

Selected bibliography

The style and content of Steiner's works can vary greatly. Therefore, while it might be stimulating to read a single lecture or book by Steiner, it would probably be a mistake, having read even four or five of his books, to suppose one has a representative picture of the whole body of his work. Out of the 350 volumes of his collected works (including roughly forty written books, and over 6000 published lectures), some of the more significant works include

• The Philosophy of Freedom (1894)
• How to Know Higher Worlds (1904-5)
• Anthroposophy and the Inner Life (1924)
• Theory of Knowledge Implicit in Goethe's World-Conception (1886)
• Theosophy (1904)
• Study of Man (1919) (Waldorf Education)
• Practical Advice To Teachers (1919)
• The Education of the Child (1907)
• Toward Social Renewal (1919)
• An Outline of Esoteric Science (1913)
• Four Mystery Dramas - The Soul's Awakening (1913)
• Truth and Science (doctoral thesis)
• Man as Symphony of the Creative Word (1923)

External links

• Goetheanum http://www.goetheanum.ch/
• The Anthroposophy Network http://www.anthroposophy.net/
• Calendar of the Soul http://www.calendarofthesoul.net
• The Rudolf Steiner Archive http://www.elib.com/Steiner/
• Steiner Books http://www.anthropress.org/
• Rudolf Steiner Foundation http://www.rsfoundation.org/
• Camphill Association http://camphillassociation.org/
• Weleda http://usa.weleda.com/
• The Christian Community http://www.thechristiancommunity.org/
• Defending Steiner http://www.defendingsteiner.com/