Analytics shows that the majority of people who visit this website, philosophyoffreedom.com, are under the age of 35. This is significant as the organization intended to preserve Rudolf Steiner's legacy, the General Anthroposophical Society, is growing more elderly and declining in membership. Steiner's pre-theosophy message of science and Ethical Individualism was ahead of its time and is only now finding a new audience of free spirits that is unreachable by an authoritarian Society.
philosophyoffreedom.com user age chart
Comments
I'm part of that percentage. Steiner always warn about making into a law the teachings he share.
Thanks for commenting Josh. If Steiner went on to develop a spiritual 'science' he would need to present some laws or principles that were considered scientific, and not just abstract spiritualistic theory.
Rudolf Steiner calls The Philosophy Of Freedom a “science” of freedom. A science needs to have principles that describe how something works. The principles in The Philosophy Of Freedom, discovered and verified through introspective observation, establish a science of freedom based on free thought. It shows that unbiased free thought is possible in the realm of universal concepts.
The only way you can establish 'freedom' as a basis of society is with a science of freedom that people can verify and accept. Otherwise you have a 1000 different opinions of what freedom is. For example, if the fact that human beings are causing climate change is not agreeable and verifiably based on science why should companies stop polluting if you can't prove they are doing harm harm?
Freedom implies we are free from the necessity of any laws, so how do you reconcile a science of freedom with freedom from laws?
An example is given in the original Preface,
In the way the composer uses his knowledge of the principles of music theory to artistically create music, so we use our knowledge of the principles of freedom to create our own unique life. We use our knowledge of what freedom is, and how it works, to orient our life in that direction. Society would use the knowledge of freedom to build social forms that support freedom. Fascist authoritarian countries or ethnically based countries suppress free individual expression.
I apologize for my answer I used my phone and I didn't explain myself better. I was talking about Anthroposophy dogmas (or authoritarian like you said) when I said to "make into a law". I was using the term loosely. I really enjoy the information on this website. Now, I can read the book Philosophy of Freedom in a new light. Thank you.
Yea, bright insight over time tends to turn into dogma and rule over us. For example, Steiner had hoped somebody would have re-written the Philosophy Of Freedom by now to update it to our current culture. The book is full of the views of German philosophers who people admired 100 years ago. Nobody cares about old German culture today yet the Anthroposophical Society is like the preservation society of old Germany. To be a top leader you are required to know the German language. It shows the literalism they are attached to rather than any growth or depth in understanding.
I had always hoped this website would present the views of many who would together become a new updated translation of the book such as people posting study projects. Right now I am working on the next series of videos starting with Chapter 1. I am looking at whether I can turn it into a comparative science project to present a science of freedom. Steiner calls it a science of freedom but I don't think anybody gets that from reading the book. That shows that the book needs to be updated.
Thank you for the work you do. Personally I really appreciate. I'm in the process of grasping the concepts in the book. Hopefully I can be of help as time pass.
Interested in your comments and questions. Please post online or contact me personally. -Tom