Cognitive Powers

How to Use the Cognition Flash Cards

Read the Unfree State and consider the Question. Try to discover the answer through your own thinking before turning the card upside down to reveal the Freedom Gained and Free State.

The purpose is not merely to memorize definitions, but to recognize these states in your own experience and consciously develop the powers needed to overcome them.

The goal is to advance from knowing about freedom to developing and exercising the cognitive powers through which freedom becomes possible.

Print your own Cognition Flash Cards.

PDF   A. THE GOAL OF KNOWLEDGE
PDF   0. THE GOAL OF KNOWLEDGE
PDF   1. CONSCIOUS HUMAN ACTION
PDF   2. THE FUNDAMENTAL DESIRE FOR KNOWLEDGE
PDF   3. THINKING AS THE INSTRUMENT OF KNOWLEDGE
PDF   4. THE WORLD AS PERCEPT
PDF   5. OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE WORLD
PDF   6. HUMAN INDIVIDUALITY
PDF   7. ARE THERE ANY LIMITS TO KNOWLEDGE?
PDF   8. THE FACTORS OF LIFE
PDF   9. THE IDEA OF FREEDOM
PDF   10. FREEDOM PHILOSOPHY AND MONISM
PDF   11. WORLD PURPOSE AND LIFE PURPOSE (Human Destiny)
PDF   12. MORAL IMAGINATION (Darwinism And Ethics)
PDF   13. THE VALUE OF LIFE (Optimism And Pessimism)
PDF   14. INDIVIDUALITY AND TYPE

192 Steps to Freedom

The 192 Steps to Freedom describe the complete developmental path through which conscious, self-determined freedom becomes possible.

The 24 Attitudes of Individuality prepare the individual for freedom by establishing the inner orientation required for independent knowing and acting.

The 168 Cognitive Powers of Freedom are the developable capacities of free knowing and free action that enable freedom to be consciously exercised and realized.

84 Powers of Free Knowing — Chapters 1–7
Developable cognitive capacities through which the individual learns to know reality independently.

84 Powers of Free Action — Chapters 8–14
Developable cognitive capacities through which the individual learns to act from consciously known, self-determined grounds.

Together, these form a developmental path. Each attitude and cognitive power can be practiced individually, while the complete path provides a systematic development from individuality and free knowing to free action and Ethical Individualism.

COGNITION CARDS

Learn the Cognitive Powers of Freedom

How does an individual advance from an unfree state of consciousness to freedom?

Freedom begins with the development of our capacity to think independently, understand reality, and consciously direct our actions.

The Freedom Quest Cognition Cards introduce the cognitive powers described in Rudolf Steiner's The Philosophy of Freedom. Each card presents a step from a limited or unfree state of consciousness toward a greater capacity for independent knowing and free action.

Each card contains:

  • Cognitive Capacity: The power of cognition being developed.

  • Outlook: The philosophical standpoint from which the experience is examined.

  • Unfree State: A limited way of knowing or acting.

  • Question: The challenge that directs attention toward freedom.

  • Freedom Gained: The cognitive power or insight that overcomes the limitation.

  • Free State: The more developed form of conscious activity made possible by that power.