Product Description

Are we free or determined by external conditions?
What is freedom?

This book presents Steiner's profound exploration of these ultimate questions of human existence. Steiner asserts that free spiritual activity - the human ability to think and act independently of physical nature - is the approriate and available path for human beings today to gain true knowledge of themselves and of the universe.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #221603 in Books
• Published on: 1999-05-27
• Original language: German
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 233 pages

About the Author
RUDOLF STEINER (1861-1925) called his spiritual philosophy `anthroposophy', meaning `wisdom of the human being'. As a highly developed seer, he based his work on direct knowledge and perception of spiritual dimensions. He initiated a modern and universal `science of spirit', accessible to anyone willing to exercise clear and unprejudiced thinking.

From his spiritual investigations Steiner provided suggestions for the renewal of many activities, including education (both general and special), agriculture, medicine, economics, architecture, science, philosophy, religion and the arts. Today there are thousands of schools, clinics, farms and other organizations involved in practical work based on his principles. His many published works feature his research into the spiritual nature of the human being, the evolution of the world and humanity, and methods of personal development. Steiner wrote some 30 books and delivered over 6,000 lectures across Europe. In 1924 he founded the General Anthroposophical Society, which today has branches throughout the world.

Customer Reviews

The key to life?!
Steiner first published this book in 1894 and then later in a revised edition in 1918. There are several different translations of the original and I am told that the most recent US translation is quite good, but I personally find Wilson's translation highly accurate and relatively easy to understand. Steiner apparently was once asked in an interview what of his work would remain in a thousand years time? His answer was 'my Philosophy of Freedom"! And while superficially it might be thought that his later works on spiritual beings and so forth is a sharp departure from this rational treatise, close reading and long-term engagement will show that the Philosophy of Freedom provides the very key to entry into spiritual worlds.

I have read and reread this many times and recommend it without hesitation to anyone who is seriously intrigued by this life of ours and who does not shy away from giving some serious time and effort to understanding it. What Steiner does in this book is absolutely phenomenal. In his previous book (A Theory of Knowledge Implicit in Goethe's World Conception) he showed that Goethe's scientific method provides a solid path towards an understanding of the natural world. In Philosophy of Freedom it is as if Steiner takes us by the hand and applies Goethe's method to an investigation of the human condition itself.

In the 1918 preface Steiner wrote: "The book will not give a ready-made self-contained answer [...] but will point to a field of experience in which man's inner soul activity supplies living answers". So what are the question posed by Steiner? So, while it is possible to summarise the contents, doing so in effect separates content from process. It is the very process of deep engagement with the questions and exploration in this book that will lead the reader onwards, not an abstraced set of ready made answers.

The same preface says: "There are two fundamental question in the life of the human soul towards which everything to be discussed in this book is directed. One is: Is it possible to find a view of the essential nature of man such as will give us a foundation for everything else that comes to meet us [...]?" And: "Is man entitled to claim for himself freedom of will [...]?"

(Steiner means "human beings" when he uses the word 'man')

The first part of the book is dedicated to exploring these questions in detail, from different perspectives and in the light of mainstream philosophical ideas. The second part discusses in some depth the implications for life in general of the view developed in part one. I cannot claim to understand either part one or two completely. All I can claim is the following two experiences:

1. A strong feeling that what Steiner offers here is leading to truth and therefore provides a strong motivation for coming back again and again to the text to try and fully understand it.
2. A very clear sense that on each reading I understand more and am now at the stage where I can fairly clearly see how indeed this book provides a portal to the spritual worlds.

I think the essence of the book in a nutshell, is that the nature of thinking provides the key to life. If we can learn to observe our own thinking in detail and without bias, we come to the conclusion that it is a self-sustaining activity, located as it were at the foothills of the spiritual worlds. I experience my thinking as purely spiritual, matter-less. I then see that many of the questions about spirit and matter, many of the dualistic perspectives, dissolve into nothing, as they are all the result of a kind of thinking that does not yet understand itself. The challenge lies in really coming to live in this insight and apply it in our daily living in such a way that we become co-creators with the 'All-World-Being' and entirely free as human beings.

Not sure this is helpful, but hopefully sufficiently intriguing to inspire you to buy and study the book!

Excellent
A discovery into Rudolf Steiner's work and mindframe. Pushing the limits of understanding, of world view, consciousness and... Thinking. Highly recommended for those wanting to get their teeth into somethinng that they will not necessarily understand.