Thesis_Ginges_H.txt THE ACT OF KNOWING: RUDOLF STEINER AND THE NEO-KANTIAN TRADITION. Hal Jon Ginges. Page 1

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1 Thesis_Ginges_H.txt THE ACT OF KNOWING: RUDOLF STEINER AND THE NEO-KANTIAN TRADITION Hal Jon Ginges Page 1

2 Thesis_Ginges_H.txt A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Western Sydney February 2012 Page 2

3 2 Certificate.txt Certificate This work has not been submitted previously for a higher degree at any other institution. The work contained in this thesis is entirely my own, except for references to the works of others as indicated in the text. Signed: Date: Page 1

4 3 Abstract.txt Abstract A central claim of Kantian critical idealism is that our knowledge is limited to appearances, and that we cannot show we have knowledge of things-in-themselves. All of our knowledge of the given world is mediated to us through the sensory intuitions of space and time, and our intellect is discursive rather than archetypal. As a result, we cannot know things spontaneously, and we cannot have holistic knowledge of natural phenomena. Although unmediated knowledge by way of intellectual intuition must be counted as a rational possibility that is not a capacity we possess. Similarly, while an archetypal intellect must be a rational possibility, according to Kant we do not have one. Rudolf Steiner is well known as an educator. In his early career Steiner was trained as a natural scientist, took a doctorate in neo-kantian philosophy and sought to demonstrate that we do have direct access to knowledge of essences. Steiner was greatly influenced by Goethe and Fichte and attempted to overcome the limit Kant placed upon possible knowledge by adapting Goethe s concept of the archetypal phenomenon to claim that we do possess an intellectus archetypus and by extrapolating from Fichte s argument for intellectual intuition to argue for what he calls intuitive thinking. This dissertation examines Steiner s arguments as a series of disjunctions from the propositions of the critical philosophy. The thesis of the dissertation is that Steiner is ultimately unsuccessful in his attempts to establish the capacities for an intellectus archetypus and intuitive thinking from within the context of critical idealism, but that his work opens up ways in which neo-kantian scholarship may be further developed. Page 1

5 Contents 4 CONTENTS.txt Acknowledgements ii Abbreviations iv Texts and translations vi Introduction: Rudolf Steiner the Philosopher 1 PART 1 Chapter 1: Intuition and Archetype 23 Chapter 2: Goethe s Way of Seeing 32 Chapter 3: The Kantian Legacy 58 PART 2 Chapter 4: Monism and Dualism 72 Chapter 5: Perceiving the Archetype 108 Chapter 6: Intellectual Intuition 155 Chapter 7: Intuitive Thinking 209 Page 1

6 4 CONTENTS.txt Conclusion 247 Bibliography 254 Page 2

7 Acknowledgements 5 Acknowledgements.txt I was introduced to the thought and work of Rudolf Steiner in about 1970, when I was an undergraduate student at Sydney University. I have had an ambivalent relationship with Steiner s Anthroposophy ever since. I have been attracted from the start to the practical aspects of Anthroposophy such as the Waldorf school curriculum, biodynamic agriculture and Steiner s socio-political concept of the threefold social order. I have met people I admire and respect through Anthroposophy and have formed strong friendships with some of them. At the same time my natural scepticism and my training in Philosophy have made me incapable of accepting on faith much of the world view that many anthroposophists take for granted. My ambivalent relationship with Anthroposophy eventually drove me to read Steiner s Philosophy of Freedom carefully. I was astonished to find that this thinker, branded as a theosophist and a mystic, displayed an impressive familiarity with the work of Kant, the post-kantians and his contemporary Neo-Kantians, and was attempting to argue for his spiritual science as a philosopher. I wanted to know whether Steiner s spiritual science, and the practical activities which had arisen from it, could indeed be legitimised as a form of knowledge from within the mainstream Western tradition. I was surprised, though perhaps I ought not to have been, that there appeared to be almost no academic work undertaken on the subject. In late 2005 I approached Dr Michael Symonds at the University of Western Sydney about his supervising a doctoral dissertation on the epistemology of Rudolf Steiner. I commenced as a part-time student in 2006, and was awarded a scholarship by the University from 2007 to mid Throughout the six years of my research I have enjoyed Michael s support and enthusiasm for the project, and have benefited greatly from his helpful criticisms and his clear insights. I was able to visit the Goetheanum, the international headquarters of the Anthroposophical Society in Dornach, Switzerland in January 2008 with assistance from the University. I wish to acknowledge with gratitude the constant encouragement, well beyond the call of duty, which I have received from Dr Michael Symonds and the support I have had from the Research Unit of the University. Outside of the University I have received support and encouragement from persons associated with Anthroposophy. The Eileen Mac Pherson Trust provided me with some financial support, Dr Walter Kugler and his staff at the Rudolf Steiner Archiv in Dornach were very accommodating, and Rudolf Steiner House in Sydney has assisted me by arranging for me to lecture on Steiner s epistemology in an open forum. Numerous of Page 1

8 5 Acknowledgements.txt my friends, including John Shaw, Arthur Marshall and Jacob van Gent have expressed a continuing interest in my project and a desire to read the final product. On a personal and on a practical level I wish to acknowledge the love and support I have received from my wife, Heather. She has read my drafts and provided me with valuable suggestions, and challenged me on many points so as to sharpen my thinking. She has also had to carry the larger load of the responsibilities we bear towards our ever expanding family, and I thank her for ensuring that I have had time available to me to complete this labour of love. It only remains to thank our children and grandchildren for their continuing love and interest in what Papa is doing despite his absences: thank you, to all of you, for your kindness and understanding. Page 2

9 Abbreviations 6 Abbreviations.txt Fichte, J. IWL Introductions to the Wissenschaftslehre. Translated by D. Breazeale. (Cornell University Press: Ithaca and London, 1992). Goethe, J. GOS Goethe on Science: An Anthology of Goethe s Scientific Writings. (Floris Books: Edinburgh, 2000) GSW Goethes Sämtliche Werke. (Max Hesses Verlag: Leipzig). Henrich, D. FOI Fichte s Original Insight. In Contemporary German Philosophy vol 1. (Pennsylvania State University Press, pp15-53) Kant, I. CJ Critique of Judgment. Translated by W. Pluhar. (Hackett Publishing Company: Page 1

10 6 Abbreviations.txt Indianapolis, 1987). CPR Critique of Pure Reason. Translated by Norman Kemp Smith. (Palgrave Macmillan: London, 1993). CPrR Critique of Practical Reason. Translated by Lewis White Beck. (Prentice Hall: New Jersey, 1993). GW The Moral Law: Kant s Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals, Edited by Paton. (Hutchinson University Library: London, 1972) KPV Kritik der praktischen Vernunft. (Suhrkamp: Frankfurt am Main, 1974) KRV Kritik der reinen Vernunft. (Suhrkamp: Frankfurt am Main, 1974) KU Kritik der Urteilskraft. (Suhrkamp: Frankfurt am Main, 1974) Steiner, R. CML Autobiography: The Course of my Life. Translated R. Stebbing. Page 2

11 6 Abbreviations.txt (Anthroposophic Press: Hudson, NY, 1983) GNS Einleitungen zu Goethes Naturwissenschaftlichen Schriften, (Rudolf Steiner Verlag: Dornach, 1999) GWV Goethe s World View. Translated by W. Lindeman. (Mercury Press: Spring Valley, 2004) ITSP Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path. Translated by M. Lipson. (Anthroposophic Press: Hudson, NY, 1995) NOS Nature s Open Secret. Translated by J. Barnes and M. Spiegler, (Anthroposophic Press: Spring Valley, NY, 1995). Ph F Die Philosophie der Freiheit. (Rudolf Steiner Verlag: Dornach, 2005). Ph FE The Philosophy of Freedom. Translated by M. Wilson. (Rudolf Steiner Press: Forest Row, 2001). RP Riddles of Philosophy. Introduced by F. Koelln. (Anthroposophic Press: Spring Page 3

12 6 Abbreviations.txt Valley, NY, 1973). SK The Science of Knowing. Translated by W. Lindeman. (Mercury Press: Spring Valley, NY, 1988). TK Truth and Knowledge. Translated by R. Stebbing. (Steinerbooks: Blauvelt, NY, 1981). WW Wahrheit und Wissenschaft. (Rudolf Steiner Online Archiv, 2010). Page 4

13 Texts and Translations 7 Texts and translations.txt Original sources Rudolf Steiner s works have been collected and authorised for publication by the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung in Dornach, Switzerland. Unless otherwise indicated references to the original texts are to the volumes of the 7th edition of the Gesamtausgabe published by Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach. The texts used for the Kant s Critiques are the 1974 Suhrkamp paperback editions published by Insel Verlag, Frankfurt am Main. The texts used for Goethe are the Gesamtausgabe published by Max Hesse Verlag in Leipzig. Fichte s works have not been consulted in the original. Sources in translation Much of Steiner s work has been translated into English. The principal publishers are in the United Kingdom London, Edinburgh and Forest Row and at Spring Valley in New York. Some of Steiner s principal works are available in several translations and editions. Philosophie der Freiheit was originally translated by Alfred Hoernle in 1916, and published as Philosophy of Freedom. A revised edition, with a translation by Hermann Poppelbaum was published in 1939 under the title The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity. The original translation was revisited by Michael Wilson, whose 1964 edition also restored the original title. Wilson s translation is the accepted British version, and is now in its seventh edition. In the United States a new translation by Michael Lipson has been published recently under the title Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path. Both the Wilson and the Lipson translations have been consulted but citations are to the Lipson translation. Steiner s introductions to Goethe s scientific works were originally published in translation by Anthroposophic Press as Goethe the Scientist in The more recent American translation by J. Barnes and M. Spiegler is published as Nature s Open Secret Anthroposophic Press. This translation has been consulted throughout. The translations of Kant s three Critiques, which have been consulted, are respectively the Kemp Smith, White Beck and Pluhar translations. Page 1

14 7 Texts and translations.txt Some of Goethe s scientific work is available in translation, though much of it in an incomplete form. Extensive use has been made of the anthology contained in Jeremy Naydler s Goethe on Science. At times this writer has undertaken his own translations. Page 2

15 8 INTRODUCTION RUDOLF STEINER THE PHILOSOPHER.txt INTRODUCTION: RUDOLF STEINER THE PHILOSOPHER Rudolf Steiner is a fairly well-known figure in the intellectual life of Continental Europe of the early 20th century. Steiner is most commonly associated with the Waldorf, or Rudolf Steiner, schools for which he provided the curriculum and with biodynamic (advanced organic) agriculture. Were this dissertation to be a study of some aspect of Steiner s educational philosophy or of the relative efficacy of Steiner s form of organic agriculture it would not be particularly remarkable. There are many academic and other studies of Waldorf education,1 and there are numerous tracts on the efficacy of biodynamic agriculture.2 Outside of these fields, however, and despite the substantial volume of his work3 and his evident familiarity with the Western intellectual tradition Steiner has largely been ignored by the academy.4 In his later career Steiner became a theosophist and a spiritual scientist, and it seems that his contributions to neo-kantian philosophy have been judged by this later career and have therefore been overlooked. 1 See, for example, Carlgren, F. (2008) Education Towards Freedom: Rudolf Steiner Education, Floris Books: Edinburgh; Mazzone, A. (2010) A Passionate Education, Griffin Press: Salisbury, South Australia. 2 See, for example, Pfeiffer, E. (1983) Biodynamic Gardening and Farming, Mercury Press: London. 3 There are about 400 volumes of the Gesamtausgabe published by the Rudolf Steiner Verlag: Dornach. 4 Of this phenomenon see, for example, Davenport R. (1955) The Dignity of Man, Harper Bros: New York, pp : That the academic world has managed to dismiss Steiner s works as inconsequential and irrelevant, is one of the intellectual wonders of the twentieth century. Anyone who is willing to study those vast works with an open mind (let us say, a hundred of his titles) will find himself faced with one of the greatest thinkers of all time, whose grasp of the modern sciences is equaled only by his profound learning in the ancient ones. Steiner was no more of a mystic than Albert Einstein; he was a scientist, rather but a scientist who dared to enter into the mysteries of life. In his early career Steiner was an aspiring philosopher. He wrote on Kant and the neo- Kantian tradition in a way which reveals a clear understanding of the epistemological problems within it, and which demonstrates a familiarity with the thinking and arguments of his contemporary neo-kantians and of more popular writers such as Schopenhauer and Nietzsche.5 At that early stage Steiner s primary interest was in knowledge in the strictest sense of the word, and in finding a way to overcome the unsatisfying conclusion of Kantian critical idealism, namely that we cannot claim to have knowledge of essences. It is the thesis of this dissertation that Steiner is entitled to have his early work regarded as a creditable attempt to address the epistemological issues which arise from the critical project, and that his contributions to Continental epistemology carry the promise of further developments in the idealist tradition. Page 1

16 8 INTRODUCTION RUDOLF STEINER THE PHILOSOPHER.txt 5Steiner, R. (1999) Autobiography: Chapters in the Course of my Life, Anthroposophic Press: Hudson, NY hereinafter CML, p167: My affinity with Nietzsche allowed me to describe in my book about him my relationship to him in the very words he uses to describe his relationship with Schopenhauer: I am among those readers of Nietzsche who, once they read a page, know absolutely that they will read every page and listen to every word he has ever spoken. I felt immediate confidence in him I understood him as though he had written in place of me, to clearly express me, though without presumption and foolishness. Steiner s book about Nietzsche is Friedrich Nietzsche, Ein Kämpfer gegen seiner Zeit GA5 Rudolf Steiner Verlag: Dornach is translated as Friedrich Nietzsche: A Fighter against his Times and available in Steiner, R. (1985) Friedrich Nietzsche, Fighter for Freedom, Spiritual Science Library: Blauvelt, N.Y. 6 Steiner dedicates his doctoral thesis Wahrheit und Wissenschaft [Truth and Knowledge] To Dr Eduard von Hartmann with the warm regard of the author. Rudolf Steiner was born in 1861 in Krajkevic, Croatia, in what was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His parents were Austrian, and the language of his written works is therefore German. Upon finishing school Steiner studied natural science at the University of Vienna and attended philosophy courses given by Franz Brentano. When he graduated in 1882 he was offered a position as the editor of Goethe s scientific works for the Kürschner edition of German literature. This assignment took him to Weimar, where he undertook research in the Goethe-Schiller archives, was drawn to the transcendental realism of Eduard von Hartmann6 and to Nietzsche s world view, completed his doctoral thesis and published his principal philosophical works. Steiner s early career had unfolded within the arena of conventional intellectual life, and he sought an academic post, but was unsuccessful in obtaining one. When he finished his work in the Goethe-Schiller Archives, he moved from Weimar to Berlin, edited an avant-garde magazine, Die Kommenden [The Coming Ones], was a member of the Bohemian literary and artistic cafe scene and taught at the Workers Institute. From 1901 Steiner began to publish a series of books and articles, in which he set out what he claimed to be the results of his clairvoyant observations, and which he described as knowledge of higher worlds. In these works Steiner describes a path of inner development as a way of obtaining knowledge of essences. Steiner joined, and then led, the German branch of the Theosophical Society, out of which he formed the Anthroposophical Society in From then until his death in 1925 Steiner wrote and lectured extensively on the results of what he called anthroposophische Geisteswissenschaft [anthroposophical spiritual science]. His increasing reputation as a public figure who claimed to have spiritual knowledge brought him a considerable personal following, but it cost him the respect and friendship of many of his former associations amongst philosophers and other intellectuals. Another consequence has been that Steiner s early work as a serious commentator on neo-kantian epistemology has been largely ignored or forgotten. Page 2

17 Primary sources 8 INTRODUCTION RUDOLF STEINER THE PHILOSOPHER.txt Steiner s epistemological works appeared in the last two decades of the 19th century, at a time when there were strong neo-kantian movements in the mainstream of German philosophy. Between 1885 and 1897 Steiner wrote five works which might be said to comprise his specifically epistemological output. They are Grundlinien einer Erkenntnistheorie der Goetheschen Weltanschauung mit besonderer Rücksicht auf Schiller [Foundations of a theory of knowledge of Goethe s world view with particular reference to Schiller] (1885)7, Einleitungen in Goethes naturwissenschaftlichen Schriften [Introductions to Goethe s writings on natural science] ( )8, Wahrheit und Wissenschaft [Truth and Knowledge] (1892)9, Die Philosophie der Freiheit [Philosophy of Freedom] (1894)10 and Goethes Weltanschauung [Goethe s World View] (1897)11. Steiner s first publication was written while he was engaged in preparing commentaries on Goethe s scientific works, and is his first attempt to identify the theory of knowledge, which he believed underlay Goethe s approach to the study of nature. The second publication is those commentaries themselves, which appeared in three batches between 1885 and Although the commentaries are intended as introductions to Goethe s scientific works they also set out some of the arguments central to Steiner s own epistemological position. The third is Steiner s doctoral thesis, the fourth, Philosophy of Freedom, is his principal philosophical work and the fifth is his last publication before embarking upon spiritual science. 7Steiner, R (1999) Grundlinien einer Erkenntnistheorie der Goetheshen Weltanschauung mit besonderer Rücksicht auf Schiller, GA 2 Rudolf Steiner Verlag: Dornach, now translated as Steiner, R.(1988) The Science of Knowing, Mercury Press: Spring Valley, NY and hereinafter SK. 8Steiner, R. (1999) Einleitungen in Goethes naturwissenschaftlichen Schriften, GA 1 Rudolf Steiner Verlag: Dornach, now translated as Steiner, R. (2000) Nature s Open Secret, Anthroposophic Press: Hudson, NY and hereinafter NOS. 9Steiner, R. (1999) Wahrheit und Wissenschaft, GA 3 Rudolf Steiner Verlag: Dornach, in translation as Steiner, R. (1981) Truth and Knowledge, Steinerbooks: Blauvelt, NY hereinafter TK. 1010Steiner, R. (2005) Die Philosophie der Freiheit, GA 4 Rudolf Steiner Verlag: Dornach hereinafter PhF, in translation as Steiner, R. (2001) The Philosophy of Freedom, Rudolf Steiner Press: Forest Row, hereinafter PhFE and as Steiner, R. (1995) Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path, Anthroposophic Press: Hudson, NY hereinafter ITSP. This is the translation most cited in the present work, largely because the editor has helpfully enumerated the paragraphs. 11 Steiner, R. (1999) Goethes Weltanschauung, GA 6 Rudolf Steiner Verlag: Dornach in translation as Steiner, R. (2004) Goethe s World View, Mercury Press: Spring Valley, NY hereinafter GWV. These first works are an attempt to create a theory of knowledge out of Goethe s scientific methodology and independent of the Kantian tradition. The following excerpt Page 3

18 8 INTRODUCTION RUDOLF STEINER THE PHILOSOPHER.txt from the first section of The Science of Knowing demonstrates Steiner s early antipathy to Kantianism and his attachment to the cultural heritage represented by Goethe and Schiller. At this stage he has not yet attempted to incorporate Goethean thinking into neo-kantianism, and could say:12 12 SK pp TK, p TK pp In accordance with current scientific terminology, our work must be considered to be one of epistemology. To be sure, the questions with which it deals will in many ways be of a different nature from those usually raised by this science. We have seen why this is the case. Whenever similar investigations arise today, they take their start almost entirely from Kant. In scientific circles the fact has been completely overlooked that in addition to the science of knowledge founded by the great thinker of Koenigsberg, there is yet another direction, at least potentially, that is no less capable than the Kantian one of being deepened in an objective manner. In the early 1860 s Otto Liebmann made the statement that we must go back to Kant if we wish to arrive at a world view free of contradiction. This is why today we have a literature on Kant almost too vast to encompass. But this Kantian path will not help the science of philosophy. Philosophy will play a part in cultural life again only when, instead of going back to Kant, it immerses itself in the scientific conception of Goethe and Schiller. By the time Truth and Knowledge was published in 1892 Steiner has moved to approaching the issue of the limits to knowledge from within the context of the Kantian and post-kantian traditions. Although he claims that present-day philosophy suffers from an unhealthy faith in Kant,13 Steiner sets up his argument as a response to the foundations of critical idealism and as an extension of Fichte s work on intellectual intuition. He is also able to articulate the difference of perspective between his position and the Kantian. In the Preface to Truth and Knowledge Steiner sets out his view of knowledge and the act of knowing in the following terms:14 The outcome of what follows is that truth is not, as is usually assumed, an ideal reflection of something real, but is a product of the human spirit, created by an activity which is free; this product would exist nowhere if we did not create it ourselves. The object of knowledge is not to repeat in conceptual form something which already exists, but rather to create a completely new sphere, which when combined with the world given to our senses constitutes complete Page 4

19 8 INTRODUCTION RUDOLF STEINER THE PHILOSOPHER.txt reality. Thus man s highest activity, his spiritual creativeness, is an organic part of the universal world-process. The world-process should not be considered a complete, enclosed totality without this activity. Man is not a passive onlooker in relation to evolution, merely repeating in mental pictures cosmic events taking place without his participation; he is the active co-creator of the world-process, and cognition is the most perfect link in the organism of the universe. This statement of Steiner s epistemological position can also be read as an expression of what Steiner took his life s mission to be, namely the reunification of matter and spirit within the sciences. Steiner s principal philosophical work, Philosophy of Freedom, appeared in 1894 and contains the clearest expression of Steiner s arguments against Kantian epistemology. Philosophy of Freedom purports to be a demonstration that human beings are inwardly (spiritually) free, but it, too, is written as a response to critical idealism. The first half of the book argues for Steiner s theory of knowledge against the backdrop of the dualism of the Kritik der reinen Vernunft [Critique of Pure Reason]15, while the second half presents Steiner s argument for ethical individualism as a counter to Kant s deontological categorical imperative in the Kritik der praktischen Vernunft [Critique of Practical Reason]16. Philosophy of Freedom has been reprinted many times both in German and in English translation. Steiner recommended that the title be translated as The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, so as to avoid the socio-political connotations most commonly 15 Kant, I. (1974) Kritik der reinen Vernunft, Suhrkamp Verlag: Frankfurt am. The translation used is by Lewis White Beck, annotated by Howard Caygill, (2003) Critique of Pure Reason, Palgrave MacMillan: Basingstoke, Hampshire, hereinafter the First Critique and CPR. 16 Kant, I. (1974 ) Kritik der praktischen Vernunft, Suhrkamp Verlag: Frankfurt am. The translation used is by Lewis White Beck, (1993) Critique of Practical Reason, Prentice Hall: New Jersey, hereinafter the Second Critique and CPrR. associated with freedom in English. He did not appreciate that the connotations of spiritual are equally likely to lead to misunderstanding. The final specifically epistemological work is Goethe s World View, which was published in By this time Steiner had published his book on Nietzsche and the last of his Introductions to Goethe s scientific oeuvres, and was coming to the end of his time in Weimar. In Goethe s World View Steiner distinguishes his own epistemological position from the theory of knowledge implicit in Goethe s natural science, argues that Plato s concept of forms and Ideas has been consistently misunderstood, and claims that Goethe s search for the archetypes in his perception of natural phenomena is the true form of Platonism. Page 5

20 8 INTRODUCTION RUDOLF STEINER THE PHILOSOPHER.txt Despite his turn to theosophy and esoteric wisdom at the beginning of the 20th century, Steiner continued to publish works of a philosophical nature. These works tend to restate Steiner s epistemological position rather than develop it any further. Between 1899 and 1910 Steiner composed Die Rätsel der Philosophie [Riddles of Philosophy],17 which is an overview of philosophical world views from classical Greece to the late nineteenth century. At the conclusion of this work Steiner argues that the future of philosophy does not lie in academic philosophy, but in his anthroposophy. This theme is continued in the lectures collected as Philosophie und Anthroposophie, GA35 in the Gesamtausgabe18, including Philosophie und Anthroposophie (1908)19 and Steiner s 17 Steiner, R. (1973) Riddles of Philosophy, Anthroposophic Press: Spring Valley, NY hereinafter RP. 18 Steiner, R. (1984) Philosophie und Anthroposophie GA 35 Rudolf Steiner Verlag: Dornach. 19 Ibid, Philosophie und Anthroposophie pp and available in translation as Steiner, R. (undated) Philosophy and Anthroposophy, Kessinger Publishing: USA. contributions to the 4th International Congress of Philosophy at Bologna in Riddles of Philosophy was reprinted in 1914 and again in 1918, when The Philosophy of Freedom was also reprinted with some significant additions and alterations. Later lectures, such as the series on Thomas Aquinas given in 1919 and available in translation as The Redemption of Thinking,21 restate the argument of Goethe s World View that Plato s concept of forms had been misunderstood until Goethe s endeavours to perceive the archetype. 20 Ibid, Die psychologischen Grundlagen und die erkenntnistheoretische Stellung der Anthroposophie pp , Die Theosophie und das Geistesleben der Gegenwart, pp , Ein Wort über Theosophie auf dem IV. Internationalen Kongreß für Philosophie, pp Steiner, R. (1983) The Redemption of Thinking, Anthroposophic Press: Spring Valley, NY. 22 SK pp Steiner s claim that it is one and the same epistemological position, which he espouses in all of his work, is repeated in the new edition of his first work, The Science of Knowing, which was published in 1924, forty years after its first appearance. In a note to this largely unaltered edition Steiner says of his position and of philosophy since the 1880 s:22 All these views [of philosophers], after all, presuppose that reality is present somewhere outside of the activity of knowing, and that in the activity of knowing a human, copied representation of this reality is to result, or perhaps cannot result. The fact that this reality cannot be found by knowing activity because it is first Page 6

21 8 INTRODUCTION RUDOLF STEINER THE PHILOSOPHER.txt made into reality in the activity of knowing is experienced hardly anywhere. Those who think philosophically seek life and real existence outside of knowing activity; Goethe stands within creative life and real existence by engaging in the activity of knowing. Therefore even the more recent attempts at a world view stand outside the Goethean creation of ideas. Our epistemology wants to stand inside of it, because philosophy becomes a content of life thereby, and an interest in philosophy becomes necessary for life. Steiner can claim that his epistemological position has remained unchanged, but in the forty years between 1884 and 1924 he had said a great deal else about the nature of life and the cosmos, much of which did little to enhance his reputation as a philosopher. Secondary sources in English There is almost no secondary literature in English dealing with Steiner as a philosopher. This is surprising, as Steiner qualifies for entries in the Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy and the Penguin Companion to Philosophy, though the emphasis in both these compendia is upon Steiner s contributions to education and biodynamic agriculture, his involvement with the Theosophical Society and founding of the anthroposophical movement.23 There are occasional passing references to Steiner in studies of some of his contemporaries, such as Brentano, Husserl and Nietzsche.24 Outside of the academy there are many works about Steiner s way of thinking and his engagement in various aspects of practical life, but these, almost without exception, are uncritical presentations of Steiner s world view from within the orbit of the Anthroposophical Society or those who are sympathetic to it. Some of these, particularly those by practising scientists25 and the Inkling-group 23See, for example, the Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy: German anthroposophist. Steiner s doctoral dissertation from Vienna concerned the philosophy of Fichte; he also studied Goethe intensively. He eventually evolved a speculative and oracular metaphysic, anthroposophy, akin to theosophy, and postulating different levels of psychical and astral realms ; and the Penguin entry: German thinker and theosophist, born in what was then Hungary and is currently Croatia. He held a prominent position in the theosophical movement at the beginning of the century, but broke away to develop an alternative system of thought, and of mental and bodily culture, which he called anthroposophy. Its organizational centre in Dornach (near Basel) in Switzerland is named Goetheanum, a clear indication of the strong influence of Goethe s nature-philosophy on Steiner, who rejected mainstream mechanistic and materialistic science, which he considered to be at best one-sided and in need of a more organic and spiritual supplementation. Genuine knowledge, he thought, must always include intuitive and aesthetic elements. Although Steiner s anthroposophical system is replete with esoteric and occult mystifications, impartial observers have found much of value in his ideas for schooling (including an emphasis on the development of children s aesthetic and creative potential), practised in the so-called Waldorf or Steiner schools. The aim is to assist and encourage a many-sided and harmonious development of the individual s potential. 24See, for example, Rollinger, R. Brentano and Husserl in Jacquette, D. (2004) Cambridge Companion to Page 7

22 8 INTRODUCTION RUDOLF STEINER THE PHILOSOPHER.txt Brentano, Cambridge UP: Cambridge, pp : [Husserl s] rejection of mysticism in philosophy is also to be found throughout his comments on Heidegger, Scheler and Steiner as well as others. 25 See, for example, Lehrs, E. (1985) Man or matter? Introduction to a Spiritual Understanding of Nature based upon Goethe s Method of Training, Observation and Thought, Rudolf Steiner Press: London. writer and critic Owen Barfield26, do nevertheless demonstrate that Steiner s way of thinking can be adapted to inform the study of natural science, literature and etymology. 26See, for example, Barfield, O. (1965) Saving the Appearances, Harcourt, Brace and World: New York; (1977) The Rediscovery of Meaning and other Essays, Wesleyan University Press: Middletown, Conn. 27 Welburn, A. (2004) Rudolf Steiner s Philosophy, Floris Books: Edinburgh. 28 Tarnas, R. (1993) The Passion of the Western Mind, Ballantine Books: New York. 29 Hammer, O. (2004) Claiming Knowledge, Brill: Leiden. 30 Tarnas more recent work is entitled Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View. This writer has been able to locate only three substantial English-language secondary sources, which overtly purport to locate Steiner s work within the philosophical tradition. Two of them are sympathetic to Steiner, and one is not. They are Andrew Welburn s recent Rudolf Steiner s Philosophy27, Richard Tarnas The Passion of the Western Mind28and Olav Hammer s Claiming Knowledge29. Welburn holds an academic post at Oxford, and it is therefore perhaps noteworthy that his book is not published by a recognised academic publishing house, but by an anthroposophical press, which specialises in religious exegesis. His Rudolf Steiner s Philosophy offers a comprehensive overview of Steiner s world view, but it is an insider s introduction to Anthroposophy for a general audience rather than a critique of Steiner s philosophical work. Welburn does provide an account of Steiner s epistemological work, but it is descriptive rather than critical and takes the form of an appendix for the reader with a more specialised interest. Richard Tarnas is a Californian philosopher, who appears to have a growing interest in the less acknowledged strands of the Western intellectual tradition.30 The Passion of the Western Mind is a broad canvas approach to Western thought from the pre-socratics to post-modernism. Tarnas is not writing specifically about Steiner, but he accords Steiner a significant role in the development of modern Western thought. Tarnas claims Steiner as the primary 20th century exponent of an alternative philosophical tradition. Having sketched the inherent problems in Kantian dualism Tarnas introduces Steiner by saying:31 31 Tarnas (1993), p Page 8

23 32Ibid., pp INTRODUCTION RUDOLF STEINER THE PHILOSOPHER.txt All of this suggests that another, more sophisticated and comprehensive epistemological perspective is called for. Although the Cartesian-Kantian epistemological position has been the dominant paradigm of the modern mind, it has not been the only one, for 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 with his study of natural forms, 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 the following paragraphs Tarnas qualifies his claim that what is being put forward is a radically different epistemological perspective by identifying it as a variant of critical idealism, which appears to encompass Fichtean subjective idealism, Schelling s naturephilosophy and Hegelian absolutism. The position which Tarnas claims Steiner has articulated within the last century is the following:32 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 selfrevelation. In this view, the essential reality of nature is not separate, selfcontained, 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. In addition to the claim that this alternative conception acknowledges the validity of Kant s critical insight and goes beyond it, Tarnas claims that it overcomes the evident problems arising from the dualism inherent in any form of transcendental idealism. Tarnas characterizes Steiner s alternative conception as a modern form of participatory consciousness:33 33 Ibid., pp Page 9

24 8 INTRODUCTION RUDOLF STEINER THE PHILOSOPHER.txt 34 The others are the Theosophy of Helena Blavatsky, the neo-theosophist Alice Bailey, the mentalist Edgar Cayce and a cluster of representatives of the broadly described New Age movement. This participatory epistemology, developed in different ways by Goethe, Hegel, Steiner, and others, can be understood not as a regression to na ve participation mystique, but as the dialectical synthesis of the long evolution from the primordial undifferentiated consciousness through the dualistic alienation. It incorporates the postmodern understanding of knowledge and yet goes beyond it. The interpretive and constructive character of human cognition is fully acknowledged, but the intimate, interpenetrating and all-permeating relationship of nature to the human being and human mind allows the Kantian consequence of epistemological alienation to be entirely overcome. Although Tarnas clearly locates Steiner within the mainstream philosophical tradition, and adds some weight to the argument for Steiner to be taken seriously as a philosopher, he, too, does not offer any critical analysis of Steiner s epistemological contributions. Olav Hammer is a Swedish philosopher of religion working in Denmark, whose field of research includes an interest in what he calls the Modern Esoteric Tradition. Hammer sees this tradition as commencing with the foundation of the Theosophical Society in 1880 and stretching to the various manifestations of the New Age movement of the 1970s and beyond. Claiming Knowledge is a critique of five forms of modern esotericism, all of which claim knowledge of essences on the basis of reconstituted histories and traditions, supposedly scientific arguments and the immediacy of personal experience. One of these traditions is Steiner s Anthroposophy.34 Although Hammer s interest is in the cosmological, mystical and pseudo-religious aspects of Steiner s legacy, his study does also acknowledge and discuss Steiner as a neo-kantian. Hammer purports to be neither sympathetic to nor dismissive of his subjects, but the criterion against which the respective traditions are measured is the empirical science of the Enlightenment. As a consequence Hammer criticises Steiner s epistemological position without examining the arguments for it. In addition to these three books there are recent papers published in journals or delivered at conferences, which attempt to relate Steiner s epistemological work to more familiar trends in contemporary Continental philosophy. These papers include, for example, studies of Goethean science with allusion to Steiner and a comparison between Steiner s concept of intuitive thinking and the re-examination of thinking in the later works of Heidegger.35 Again, however, this writer has not been able to find any papers which offer a critical analysis of Steiner s position. 35See, for example, Fischer, L. (2011) Goethe contra Hegel: The Question of the End of Art, Goethe Yearbook XVIII pp ; Dahlin, B. and Majorek, M. (2008) On the path towards thinking: learning Page 10

25 8 INTRODUCTION RUDOLF STEINER THE PHILOSOPHER.txt from Martin Heidegger and Rudolf Steiner, EERA Conference in Gothenburg, Info3 Verlag; Frankfurt am Main. Secondary sources in German There is a significantly larger secondary literature in German on Steiner as a philosopher. Most of the material until quite recently is, like the English language corpus, merely explicatory. It, too, is mostly written by anthroposophists or others committed to Steiner s world view. With few exceptions it does not attempt to offer any critique of Steiner s arguments and his epistemological position. One exceptional writer is Michael Muschalle, who has published books, articles and an online newsletter, which attempt to acknowledge and to respond to the philosophical problems in Steiner s epistemology. Commencing with his doctoral thesis, Die Beobachtung des Denkens [The Observation of Thinking],36 through numerous articles37 and to his most recent Beobachtung des Denkens bei Rudolf Steiner38 [Rudolf Steiner s Observation of Thinking] Muschalle explores the philosophical issues, which emerge from Steiner s view of the nature of thinking. Another recent contributor to Steiner exegesis is Michael Kirn, whose books Das grosse Denk-Ereignis [The Turning Point in Thinking] and Freiheit im Leib? [Physically Free?]39 are explorations of the philosophical implications of the first three chapters of Philosophy of Freedom. Marcello da Veiga Greuel s Wirklichkeit und Freiheit [Reality and Freedom]40 is a comparative study of the concepts and methodologies of Fichte s and Steiner s epistemologies. Although da Veiga Greuel is clearly sympathetic to Steiner Wirklichkeit und Freiheit is the closest attempt this writer has found to a critique of Steiner from within the context of the idealist tradition. Marek Majorek, the co-author of one of the recent papers mentioned earlier, has published a work on the concept of objectivity, in which he argues for Steiner s spiritual science from within the context of objectivity as a philosophical problem.41 In addition to these efforts to place Steiner within his philosophical context there are criticisms of Steiner s epistemology from those attached to a perspective which it appears to challenge.42 The German secondary literature appears to have reached the stage at which Steiner s epistemological work is 36 Muschalle, M. (1988) Die Beobachtung des Denkens: Universitaet Bielefeld: online. 37 See, for example, Muschalle, M. (2007) Goethe, Kant und das intuitive Denken in Rudolf Steiners Philosophie der Freiheit, Studien zur Anthroposophie: online; (2009) The Causality of Thinking, trans. T. Boardman and G. Savier: online. 38 Muschalle, M. (2007) Beobachtung des Denkens bei Rudolf Steiner: Books on Demand GmbH: Norderstedt. 39 Kirn, M. (1998) Das grosse Denk-Ereignis, Verlag am Goetheanum: Dornach; (1999) Freiheit im Leib?, Verlag am Goetheanum: Dornach. 40 Veiga Greuel, M. da (1990) Wirklichkeit und Freiheit, Gideon Spicker Verlag: Dornach. 41 Majorek, M. (2002) Objektivitaet: ein Erkenntnisideal auf dem Prüfstand Rudolf Steiners Page 11

26 8 INTRODUCTION RUDOLF STEINER THE PHILOSOPHER.txt Geisteswissenschaft als ein Ausweg aus der Sackgasse [Objectivity: An ideal of knowledge on trial Rudolf Steiner s Spiritual Science as a Way out of the Dead End], Francke Verlag: Tuebingen & Basel. 42 See, for example, Dilloo-Heidger, E. (2005) Projekt: Grundlagen der Anthroposophie, Dilloo-Heidger s project is to assess Steiner s early work hermeneutically, and without reference to Steiner s claims to intuitive sources for knowledge of higher worlds. now the subject of serious intellectual argument. Even within the German corpus, however, there still seems to be little attempt to subject Steiner s philosophical arguments to critical analysis. Secondary sources in other languages Although the largest part of the literature about Rudolf Steiner and Anthroposophy is written in German and English, there is a growing literature in other languages, including Dutch, French, Italian, Spanish, the Scandinavian languages and Polish, Hungarian and Russian. Most of the works this writer could decipher are translations of Steiner s primary texts or of secondary literature already long available in German and English The author visited the library at the Goetheanum, which houses collections in these other languages. 44 Steiner frequently cites Volkelt, and often refers to Cohen and Windelband. The Kantian context In this dissertation the view has been taken that Steiner s epistemological work is best considered as a response to Kantian transcendental idealism, although Steiner would not have regarded himself as a neo-kantian. The citations in his early works demonstrate that he was very familiar with the orientations of the Marburg and Baden schools of neo- Kantianism, though he distanced himself from them.44 His philosophical positions seem to have been most strongly influenced by his personal contacts with Brentano and von Hartmann and by his readings of the reinterpretations of Kantian idealism undertaken by Fichte and Schopenhauer. The outcome of these influences upon Steiner has resulted in an approach which Steiner, following on from Brentano, chooses to characterise as phenomenological, but which also bears the hallmarks of strong Idealist tendencies. Steiner is certainly not a phenomenologist in the style of Husserl or even of Brentano, for it matters to Steiner to acknowledge the limits imposed upon possible knowledge by critical idealism. Steiner appears to accept Kantian transcendental idealism as the necessary starting point for any epistemological investigation, including his own.45 In his autobiographical The Page 12

27 8 INTRODUCTION RUDOLF STEINER THE PHILOSOPHER.txt Course of my Life, Steiner tells of saving his pocket money to buy the First Critique and reading it surreptitiously at school behind the covers of his history book.46 He then describes the effect the Critique of Pure Reason had upon the development of his own thinking: 45 See, for example, RP p. 445: Security and certainty of knowledge is being sought in many philosophical systems, and Kant s ideas are more or less taken as its point of departure. 46 CML, p Ibid., p the question concerning the scope of the human power of thought occupied me constantly. I felt that thinking could be developed into a power that truly includes the things and processes of the world. Subject matter that remains beyond thinking, as something merely reflected upon, was an unbearable idea to me. I told myself again and again that what is in the thing must enter one s thoughts. This feeling clashed continually with what I read in Kant, but I hardly noticed this conflict at the time. More than anything, through the Critique of Pure Reason I wanted to obtain a firm foundation that would enable me to come to terms with my own thinking. Whenever I went for walks during the holidays, I had to sit somewhere quiet, and repeatedly make clear to myself the exact process involved in the transition from simple surveyable concepts to mental images of natural manifestations. My attitude toward Kant was very uncritical at the time, but I got no further through him.47 Steiner subsequently distances himself from Kant, but he continues to use Kant s epistemological architectonic and concepts as the structural framework for his own. In Truth and Knowledge Steiner stakes out his own ground by first criticizing the then widespread acceptance of Kantian thinking within academic philosophy. In Philosophy of Freedom his starting point is to show that any form of transcendental idealism is untenable. In Riddles of Philosophy, in numerous lectures and in The Course of my Life, Steiner returns time and again to Kant, so as to have a context, within which to explain the positions of other philosophers and to account for his own. Indeed, Steiner seems to regard this as almost inevitable, for he says: One thing is certain; Kant offered his contemporaries innumerable points for attack and interpretations. Precisely through his unclarities and contradictions, he became the father of the classical German world conceptions of Fichte, Schelling, Schopenhauer, Hegel, Herbart and Schleiermacher. His unclarities became new questions for them. No matter how he endeavoured to limit Page 13

28 8 INTRODUCTION RUDOLF STEINER THE PHILOSOPHER.txt knowledge in order to make place for belief, the human spirit can confess to be satisfied in the true sense of the word only through knowledge, through cognition.48 48RP, p CML, p. 33. It is something of an irony that the subsequent neglect of Steiner as a philosopher appears to have arisen from his own expectation that the findings of his spiritual science would be regarded as knowledge and accepted on faith. In Course of My Life Steiner describes his first encounters with the Critique of Pure Reason and his life-long passion to demonstrate that much more is knowable than is acknowledged within critical idealism. He describes his enthusiasm for Kant in the following terms: While Kant was coming into my sphere of thinking, I was completely ignorant of his position in human intellectual history. All the views of him, whether for or against, were completely unknown to me. My unbounded interest in the Critique of Pure Reason arose entirely from my personal soul life. In my boyish way I tried to understand to what degree human reason is capable of true understanding of the nature of things.49 That enthusiasm had waned by the time Steiner published his doctoral thesis, the Preface for which begins: Present-day philosophy suffers from an unhealthy faith in Kant. This essay is intended to be a contribution toward overcoming this. It would be wrong to belittle this man s lasting contributions toward the development of German philosophy and science. But the time has come to recognize that the foundation for a truly satisfying view of the world and of life can be laid only by adopting a position which contrasts strongly with Kant s TK, p RP, p CML, p Later, in Riddles of Philosophy Steiner says of the Kantian legacy: Kant found an Page 14