rudolf steiner (155)

For centuries, the enigma of free will has captivated philosophers, scientists, and thinkers. Despite countless debates and discussions, a definitive understanding of human freedom remained elusive. However, a groundbreaking scientific discovery has now provided substantial evidence to validate Rudolf Steiner's profound insights into the nature of free will, potentially converting long-standing philosophical debates into tangible scientific understanding.

In 1894, Rudolf Steiner, in his seminal work "The Philosophy Of Freedom," introduced a revolutionary perspective on free will. Unlike traditional approaches that offered abstract definitions, Steiner focused on a specific region of the mind, a realm where he believed the seeds of free will could flourish. He posited that true freedom of will is accessible only within this particular mental domain stating, "In The Philosophy Of Freedom, I attempt to present a view of the human being that fully justifies the idea of freedom of the will provided one finds the region of the mind where free will can unfold itself" (Rudolf Steiner, 1918 preface to the revised Philosophy Of Freedom). His focus was not on abstract theorizing but on pinpointing a specific region of the mind where freedom originates.

Steiner argued that intuitive ideas, born from within this region, are the wellsprings of truth and inspiration. He emphasized that these insights are more than mere cognitive processes; they are the source of genuine creativity and freedom. This region of the mind is where one's thinking activity can continually provide creative answers to personal queries. "The book points to a region of the mind where the mind's activity supplies a living answer, always anew, to the questions whenever a person needs it," he explained in the 1918 preface to the revised Philosophy Of Freedom.

In a remarkable parallel to Steiner's century-old observations, brain imaging research has shed light on the brain's role in creative insights. The 2015 publication "The Eureka Factor" by two cognitive neuroscientists identified the right temporal lobe, just above the ear, as the epicenter of intuitive insights. This area, associated with conceptual knowledge, is where creative thoughts and ideas coalesce. This discovery aligns with Steiner's idea of 'conceptual intuitions' and 'moral intuitions' arising from the realm of concepts, shaping our understanding of the world and our place within it.

The research uncovered that these moments of insight are marked by surges of gamma brainwave energy, signifying heightened awareness and enhanced thinking. This intuitive impulse improved focus, increased intelligence, and boosts energy. This higher experience results in more tolerance and more compassion.

Steiner referred to these bursts of energy as the 'impulse of freedom,' a phenomenon he sought to establish on a scientific basis. "I wrote The Philosophy Of Freedom in order to give humanity a clear picture of the idea of freedom, of the impulse of freedom. To this end, it was necessary first of all to establish the impulse of freedom on a firm scientific basis," he reflected in 1918. The 'impulse of freedom' now finds empirical support in neuroscience. It is no longer merely an abstract idea but a tangible, measurable phenomenon, experienced as a moment of intuitive insight that can inspire and empower.

According to Steiner this impulse of freedom is not a single event but a two-step process. The normal psychological and physical influences on thinking must first withdraw to create a conducive environment for the emergence of new ideas. This makes freedom possible, allowing us to overcome the psychological and physical compulsions that typically control our thought and action. "The psychological and physical organization withdraws whenever the activity of thinking takes place. It suspends its own activity, it makes room. And the space that has been set free is occupied by thought," Steiner observed in Chapter 9 of the 1918 revised edition of The Philosophy Of Freedom.

The suspension of psychological and physical influences was explained by the neuroscientists. They discovered that preceding the gamma wave burst of intuitive insight there is an alpha wave burst that limits external sensory inputs and suspends cognitive activity. The alpha wave burst prepares the brain to receive the new insight by restricting external information and allowing space for the new thought to appear.

This groundbreaking research validates Steiner's vision and his efforts to empirically ground the idea of freedom. It suggests that the intuitive process, as described by Steiner, has a physical counterpart in the brain's activities. This bridges the gap between philosophical speculation and empirical evidence, paving the way for a deeper exploration of the human psyche and its capabilities. The emergence of a science of freedom heralds a new era in personal development and societal structure, laying the foundation for human evolution and social progress.

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Rudolf Steiner opposed the Zionist state of Israel. He was a critic of a Zionist state, and any other ethnically determined state, as he considered ethnicity an outmoded basis for social life and civic identity.

Today, Netanyahu is openly calling for biblical genocide, he says, "You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible." "Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys" (1 Samuel 15:3)

Israel is one of the most racist countries in the world. While Israel works hard to play the victim, it’s actually a racist, Jewish supremacist state that’s been trying to ethnically cleanse Palestine for decades. This video explains how racism is the core of Israel’s national identity.

Being true to the principles of freedom and individuality in his Philosophy Of Freedom, Rudolf Steiner was a critic of his contemporary Theodor Herzl's goal of a Zionist state, and indeed any other ethnically determined state, as he considered ethnicity to be an outmoded basis for social life and civic identity.

To learn about Rudolf Steiner's view on Zionism and calling someone an "antiSemite" read this Steiner's article: Magazine for Literature, 66th year, No., 38, 25 September 1897

THE DESIRE OF THE JEWS FOR PALESTINE

Not a few smart people will find it superfluous that any word was spoken about the strange gathering that took place in Basel a few days ago under the name Zionist Congress. The fact that a number of European-born Jews come together to propagate the idea of ​​establishing a new Palestinian empire and to cause the Jews to emigrate to this new "promised land" seems to these wise men to be an insane idea of ​​a morbidly excited fantasy. In this judgment, they are reassured. They do not talk about it anymore. I believe, however, that these wise men have lagged ten years behind in their judgments. And ten years is a small eternity in our time when events are flowing so fast. Ten years ago, with some justification, one could think that a Jew was half mad who had the idea of ​​bringing his people to Palestine. Today one may only consider him hypersensitive and vain; but in another ten years things can be very different.

However, in the case of Messrs. Herzl and Nordau, the present leaders of the Zionist movement, I think it is more about vanity than a sensitivity to a perceived increase in anti-Semitism. The commonplace phrases that Herzl put forward in his booklet "The Jewish State" (M. Breitenstein's bookstore, Leipzig and Vienna, 1896) and the story-telling with which the sensationalist Nordau in Basel delighted his listeners are certainly not troubled from the deepest depths of their souls. But they come from intelligent minds who know what works most strongly for those Jews who have a sensitive heart and a sophisticated sense of self-respect. These latter members of the Jewish people will, in my opinion, become followers of Messrs. Herzl and Nordau. And the number of these members is certainly not small.

What good is it to emphasize so often that the Jews who feel this way are in grave error? They turn their eyes away from the great advances that have been made in recent decades, the emancipation of the Jews, and only see that they are still excluded from many places, and many rights are reduced; and, moreover, they hear that they are being insulted by the anti-Semites in the most desperate way. They do so because their hurt feelings cloud their minds. They are unable to see the powerlessness of anti-Semitism; they only see its drive and its outrageous excesses. They doubt whoever tells them: look at how futile the machinations of the hate of the Jews is, and how all their endeavors end in embarrassment.

They listen only to those who say to them like Theodor Herzl: "In the populations, anti-Semitism is growing daily, hourly, and must continue to grow, because the causes persist and can not be resolved. ... Our well-being seems to contain something provocative, because for many centuries the world has been accustomed to seeing in us the most despicable of the poor. At the same time one does not realize, out of ignorance or narrow-mindedness, that our well-being weakens us as Jews and extinguishes our peculiarities. Only the pressure presses us back to the old tribe, only the hatred of our surroundings makes us strangers again. So we are and will remain, whether we like it or not, a historical group of recognizable togetherness. We are a people - the enemy makes us without our will, as has always been in history".

And those who find such sentences the most powerful reverberations today were very ready with a passion to let their own peoplehood merge into that of the West. It is not real anti-Semitism that is the cause of this Jewish over-sensitivity, but the false image formed by an over-excited fantasy of the anti-Semitic movement. Anyone who has anything to do with Jews knows how deeply among the best of its people is the tendency to make such a false picture. Mistrust of the non-Jew has thoroughly seized their souls. In the case of people with no trace of conscious anti-Semitism, they suspect an unconscious, instinctive, secret hatred of the Jews at the bottom of the soul. I count it among the most beautiful fruits, which can drive human inclination, if every trace of suspicion between a Jew and a non-Jew is extinguished in the direction indicated above. I would almost call such a passion a victory over human nature. It is not excluded that in a short time such inclinations will be altogether impossible.

There may come a time when the sensation sphere of Jewish personalities becomes so irritated that every understanding with non-Jews becomes impossible. What counts in the so-called Jewish question is sensible arguments and plans, not the tearing of intimate threads between Jew and non-Jew, or the rise of emotional tendencies, or a thousand unspeakable things. It would be best if there were as little talk as possible in this matter. Only the mutual actions of individuals should be valued. It does not matter if someone is Jewish or German: if I find him nice, I like him; if he is disgusting, I avoid him. This is so simple that it is almost silly when you say it.

But how foolish do you have to be when you say the opposite! I think the anti-Semites are harmless people. The best of them are like children. They want to have something to blame for the ill they suffer. When a child drops a plate, it looks for somebody or something that has bumped it to blame for the accident. It does not seek the cause, the fault, in itself. That is what the anti-Semites do. It is bad for many people. They are looking for something to blame. The circumstances have brought it about that many currently see this something in Judaism.

Much worse than the anti-Semites are the heartless leaders of the European-weary Jews, Messrs. Herzl and Nordau. They turn an unpleasant childish world into a world-history stream; they are making a harmless banter into a terrible cannon fire. They are seducers, tempters of their people. They sacrifice the understanding that all reasonable people should wish, for their own vanity, which thirsts for programs, because - where deeds are lacking, at the right time a program is established.

However harmless anti-Semitism is in itself, it becomes dangerous when the Jews see them in the light, into which Herzl and Nordau place them. And they understand the language of the tempters, these gentlemen: "One will pray in the temples for the success of the work. But in the churches too! It is the solution of an old pressure under which everyone suffered. But first it must be light in the mind. The idea must fly out to the last deplorable nests where our people live. They will wake up from their dull brooding. For in all our lives comes a new content. Everyone only needs to think about it themselves, and the train will be a huge one. And what fame awaits the selfless fighters for the cause! That is why I believe that a generation of wonderful Jews will grow out of the earth. The Maccabees will rise again." So writes Mr. Theodor Herzl in his "The Jewish State".

I fear there will come a time when the Jews no longer believe what we non-Jews tell them about anti-Semitism, in favor of parroting their Jewish seducers. And like so many beguiled, soulful Jews they will translate the empty phrases of these deceivers into the language of their hearts. The seduced will suffer; but the seducers will triumph over the success their vanity has won. In Basil the question has been basically decided: what should be done to make the solution of the Jewish question as impossible as it possibly could be?

Whether the gentlemen Herzl and Nordau really believe that the Palestinian empire can be established, I can not decide. I hypothesize, in honor of their intelligence, that they do not believe in it. If I am right in this assumption, then one must blame these leaders for placing more obstacles in the way of the confrontation between Jews and non-Jews than the anti-Semitic agitators. The Zionist movement is an enemy of Judaism. The Jews would do best to look closely at the people who make specters of them.

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The Philosophy Of Freedom Study Guide

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Rudolf Steiner: Equality vs. Equity

For the Right FAIRNESS means "equality", we all have equal opportunity. For the Left FAIRNESS means "equity", we all have equal outcomes. Equality means everyone crosses the STARTING line at the same time. Equity means everyone crosses the FINISH line at the same time, no matter how much talent or individual effort they put forth. Equal opportunity allows people to blossom and to reap the benefits of their efforts. Equity stifles initiative, the desire to be creative, and the motivation to work hard. The difference between “equality” and “equity” is the difference between the freedom to choose for ourselves or the tyranny of elites who decide what is "equitable" and have the power to make choices for the rest of us.10165222058?profile=RESIZE_710x

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