BY its very nature, The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity can often be a difficult and impenetrable text. Not merely in terms of its subject-matter, but as a direct consequence of the author’s dense and opaque language.

Another reason why people tend to avoid this most philosophical of Steinerian texts, is that the argumentation is very subtle indeed and without a prior understanding of Western thought the finely-drawn parameters that frame the Austrian’s ideas can easily be overlooked. It is for this reason that I have decided to produce a volume that can help the layperson get to grips with some of Steiner’s chief principles and propositions.

The main conclusion that one may extract from The Philosophy of Freedom is that as long as humanity continues to perform its intellectual role in association with the external world we each retain the ability to determine our own destiny. If, on the other hand, we ignore this advice and continue to base our personal identity and interpretation of the world on the automatically received values that we inherit from the mass – be it family, nation, or religion – we stifle our true potential. The solution, therefore, is to constantly strive for liberation through the employment of active thought.

Finally, although Steiner’s work is chiefly devoted to a summary of the errors of Western philosophy and the premise that an effective theory of knowledge cannot possibly include presuppositional speculation, in a more spiritual regard he was adamant that human cognition is a divinely-instituted faculty that allows God’s creatures to seize hold of universal reality. Furthermore, Steiner’s belief that the world-picture is deeply grounded in reality is centred on the more general notion that the world itself is God. Consequently, human thought becomes a way for us to fulfil our immanent role within the body of the divine.

FURTHER READING

Works by Rudolf Steiner

1883-1897

Goethean Science

1886

Theory of Knowledge Implicit in Goethe’s World-Conception

1892

Truth and Knowledge, doctoral thesis

1894

The Philosophy of Freedom

1901-1925

Mysticism at the Dawn of Modern Age

1902

Christianity as Mystical Fact

1904

Theosophy: An Introduction to the Spiritual Processes in Human Life and in the Cosmos

1904-1905

How to Know Higher Worlds: A Modern Path of Initiation

1904

Cosmic Memory: Prehistory of Earth and Man, also published as The Submerged Continents of

Atlantis and Lemuria

1907

The Education of the Child

1908

The Way of Initiation

1909

Initiation and Its Results

1910

An Outline of Esoteric Science

1913

Four Mystery Dramas

1919

The Renewal of the Social Organism

1925

Fundamentals of Therapy: An Extension of the Art of Healing Through Spiritual Knowledge

Posthumous works by Rudolf Steiner

1964

The Constitution of the School of Spiritual Science: Its Arrangement in Sections

1970

Reincarnation and Immortality

1977

Rudolf Steiner: An Autobiography, originally The Story of my Life

1987

Lucifer-Gnosis 1903-1908

1988

Correspondence and Documents 1901-1925

1993

Selected Writings

1995

The Kingdom of Childhood : Introductory Talks on Waldorf Education

2001

The Esoteric Aspect of the Social Question: The Individual and Society

2006

Rudolf Steiner Autobiography: Chapters in the Course of My Life: 1861–1907

Secondary sources

Adams, Rudolf St. George & Merry, Eleonor C.; A Man before Others: Rudolf Steiner Remembered (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1993).

Almon, Joan (Ed.); Meeting Rudolf Steiner: Classic Selections from the Journal for Anthroposophy (Journal for Anthroposophy, 2005).

Ameriks, Karl (Ed.) & Sturma (Ed.); The Modern Subject: Conceptions of the Self in Classical German Philosophy (State University of New York Press, 1995).

Anderson, Adrian; Rudolf Steiner Handbook (Port Campbell Press, 2014).

Beck, Gunnar; Fichte and Kant on Freedom, Rights and Law (Rowman and Littlefield, 2008).

Beiser, Frederick C.; The Fate of Reason: German Philosophy from Kant to Fichte (Harvard University Press, 1987).

Beiser, Frederick C.; German Idealism: The Struggle Against Subjectivism, 1791–1801 (Harvard University Press, 2002).

Beiser, Frederick C.; ‘Kant and Naturphilosophie’ in Michael Friedman (Ed.), The Kantian Legacy in Nineteenth Century Science (MIT Press, 2006).

Beiser, Frederick C.; Weltschmerz: Pessimism in German Philosophy, 1860-1900 (Oxford University Press, 2016).

Biesantz, Hagen & Klingborg, Arne; The Goetheanum: Rudolf Steiner’s Architectural Impulse (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1979).

Bondarev, G. A.; Rudolf Steiner’s “Philosophie der Freiheit” as the Foundation of the Logic of Beholding. Religion of the Thinking Will. Organon of the New Cultural Epoch. An introduction to Anthroposophical Methodology, two volumes (Lulu, 2014).

Capleton, Brian; Beyond Naivety: Post Naive Realism in the Age of Neuroscience (Amarilli Books, 2016).

Capleton, Brian; Circles, Myth and Imagination: Ten Connected Essays in Post Naive Realism (Amarilli Books, 2016).

Carlson, Maria; No Religion Higher Than Truth: A History of the Theosophical Movement in Russia, 1875–1922 (Princeton University Press, 2016).

Childs, Gilbert; Rudolf Steiner: His Life and Work (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1996).

Darnoi, Dennis N. Kenedy; The Unconscious and Eduard von Hartmann (Martinus Nijhoff, 1967).

Easton, Stewart; Rudolf Steiner: Herald of a New Epoch (Steiner Books, 1980).

Everett, Charles Carroll; Fichte’s Science of Knowledge: A Critical Exposition (BiblioLife, 2008).

Fichte, Johann Gottlieb; The Destiny of Man (Chapman Brothers, 1846).

Fichte, Johann Gottlieb; The Science of Knowing: J. G. Fichte’s 1804 Lectures on the Wissenschaftslehre (State University of New York, 2005).

Garnder, Richard; “The Big Question: Who was Rudolf Steiner and What Were His Revolutionary Teaching Ideas?” in Independent, Wednesday 24th January, 2007.

Gibson, J.J.; “A Theory of Direct Visual Perception” in J. Royce & W. Rozenboom (Eds.), The Psychology of Knowing (Gordon & Breach, 1972).

Hartmann, Eduard von; Spiritism (Cambridge University Press, 2012).

Hartmann, Eduard von; The Religion of the Future (Franklin Classics, 2018).

Hartmann, Eduard von; Philosophy of the Unconscious: Speculative Results according to the Inductive Method of Physical Science, three volumes (Independently published, 2020).

Hemleben, Johannes; Rudolf Steiner: A Documentary Biography (Henry Goulden, 1975).

Hemleben, Johannes & Twyman, Leo; Rudolf Steiner: An Illustrated Biography (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2001).

Howard, Michael; Art as Spiritual Activity: Rudolf Steiner’s Contribution to the Visual Arts (Steiner Books, 1998).

Kant, Immanuel; Critique of Pure Reason (Cambridge University Press, 1999).

Kiersch, Johannes; A History of the School of Spiritual Science (Temple Lodge Publishing, 2006).

Kries, Mateo & Vegesack, Alexander von; Rudolf Steiner: Alchemy of the Everyday (Vitra Design Museum, 2010).

Lachman, Gary; Rudolf Steiner: An Introduction to His Life and Work (TarcherPerigee, 2007).

Lissau, Rudi; Rudolf Steiner: Life, Work, Inner Path and Social Initiatives (Hawthorne Press, 2000).

Meyer, Thomas; Light for the New Millennium: Rudolf Steiner’s Association with Helmuth and Eliza von Moltke: Letters, Documents and After-death Communications (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1997).

McDermott, Robert; The Essential Steiner (Harper Press, 1984).

McDermott, Robert; “Rudolf Steiner and Anthroposophy” in Antoine Faivre & Jacob Needleman (Eds.), Modern Esoteric Spirituality (Gerder & Herder, 1995).

Myers, Perry; “Colonial Consciousness: Rudolf Steiner’s Orientalism and German Cultural Identity” in Journal of European Studies 36 (December 2006).

Neuhouser, Frederick; Fichte’s Theory of Subjectivity (Cambridge University Press, 1990).

Oberski, Iddo; Key to Life: An Introductory Sketch to Rudolf Steiner’s Philosophy of Freedom (Eloquent Books, 2010).

Palmer, Otto (Ed.); Rudolf Steiner on His Book the Philosophy of Freedom (SteinerBooks, 1975).

Paull, John; “Attending the First Organic Agriculture Course: Rudolf Steiner’s Agriculture Course at Koberwitz, 1924” in European Journal of Social Sciences 21/1 (2011).

Paull, John; “A Postcard from Stuttgart: Rudolf Steiner’s 150th Anniversary Exhibition ‘Kosmos’” in Journal of Bio- Dynamics Tasmania 103 (2011).

Paull, John; “The Secrets of Koberwitz: The Diffusion of Rudolf Steiner’s Agriculture Course and the Founding of Biodynamic Agriculture” in Journal of Social Research & Policy 2 (2015).

Paull, John; “The Library of Rudolf Steiner: The Books in English” in Journal of Social and Development Sciences 9/3 (2018).

Paull, John; “Torquay: In the Footsteps of Rudolf Steiner” in Journal of Biodynamics Tasmania 125 (2018).

Paull, John; “The Home of Rudolf Steiner: Haus Hansi” in Journal of Biodynamics Tasmania 126 (2018).

Paull, John; “Rudolf Steiner: At Home in Berlin” in Journal of Biodynamics Tasmania 132 (2019).

Preparata, Guido Giacomo; “Perishable Money in a Threefold Commonwealth: Rudolf Steiner and the Social Economics of an Anarchist Utopia” in Review of Radical Economics 38/4 (Autumn 2006).

Prokofieff, Sergei O.; Rudolf Steiner and the Founding of the New Mysteries (Temple Lodge Publishing, 1994).

Prokofieff, Sergei O.; May Human Beings Hear It! (Temple Lodge, 2004).

Prokofieff, Sergei O.; Anthroposophy and The Philosophy of Freedom (Temple Lodge Publishing, 2009).

Prokofieff, Sergei O.; The Guardian of the Threshold and the Philosophy of Freedom: On the Relationship of The Philosophy of Freedom to the Fifth Gospel (Temple Lodge Publishing, 2011).

Schiller, Paul; Rudolf Steiner and Initiation (SteinerBooks, 1990).

Schopenhauer, Arthur; The World as Will and Representation, three volumes (CreateSpace, 2016).

Searle, John R.; Seeing Things as They Are: A Theory of Perception (Oxford University Press, 2015).

Seddon, Richard; Rudolf Steiner (North Atlantic Books, 2004).

Seidel, George J.; Fichte’s Wissenschaftslehre of 1794. A Commentary on Part 1 (Purdue University Press, 1993).

Selg, Peter; Rudolf Steiner as a Spiritual Teacher: From Recollections of Those Who Knew Him (Steiner Books Publishing, 2010).

Selg, Peter; Rudolf Steiner, Life and Work: Volume 1 (1861- 1890): Childhood, Youth and Study Years (Steiner Books, 2014).

Shepherd, A. P.; Rudolf Steiner: Scientist of the Invisible (Inner Traditions, 1990).

Sokolina, Anna (Ed.); Architecture and Anthroposophy [in Russian with an English summary], (KMK, 2001).

Southgate, Troy; The Spirit Unbound: Rudolf Steiner’s Philosophy of Freedom (Black Front Press, 2022).

Southgate, Troy (Ed.); Emissary of the Soul: The Mystical Life and Thought of Rudolf Steiner (Black Front Press, 2022).

Southgate, Troy; Beyond the Decline: Rudolf Steiner’s Visionary Critique of Oswald Spengler’s Der Untergang des Abendlandes (Black Front Press, 2024).

Southgate, Troy; Chronicle of the Soul: History and Consciousness According to Rudolf Steiner (Black Front Press, 2024).

Sparby, Terje; “Rudolf Steiner’s Idea of Freedom: As Seen in the Panorama of Hegel’s Dialectic” in Epoché: A Journal for the History of Philosophy 21 (2016).

Sparby, Terje; “The Phenomenology of Imaginative Consciousness in Steiner” in Steiner Studies 1 (2020).

Storr, Anthony; “Rudolf Steiner” in Feet of Clay: Saints, Sinners, and Madmen: A Study of Gurus (Free Press Paperbacks, 1996).

Thompson, Anna Boynton; Unity of Fichte’s Doctrine of Knowledge (Andesite Press, 2017).

Tummer, Lia & Lato, Horacio; Rudolf Steiner and Anthroposophy for Beginners (Writers & Readers Publishing, 2001).

Turgeniev, Assya; Reminiscences of Rudolf Steiner and Work on the First Goetheanum (Clairview Books, 2003).

Villeneuve, Crispian; Rudolf Steiner: The British Connection: Elements from his Early Life and Cultural Development (Temple Lodge Publishing, 2011).

Wachsmuth, Guenther; The Life and Work of Rudolf Steiner: From the Turn of the Century to his Death (Whittier Books, 1955).

Welburn, Andrew; Rudolf Steiner’s Philosophy and the Crisis of Contemporary Thought (Floris Books, 2004).

Wilkinson, Roy; Rudolf Steiner: An Introduction to his Spiritual World-View (Temple Lodge Publishing, 2020).

Wilson, Colin; Rudolf Steiner: The Man and His Vision: An Introduction to the Life and Ideas of the Founder of Anthroposophy (The Aquarian Press, 1985).

Wood, David W.; ‘Mathesis of the Mind’: A Study of Fichte’s Wissenschaftslehre and Geometry (Rodopi, 2012).

Wood, David W.; “On the Spirit and Letter of Rudolf Steiner’s Philosophy: A Critical Reading of Hartmut Traub’s Philosophie und Anthroposophie” in Research on Steiner Education, Volume 1, Number 1 (2013).