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The Education of Children from the Standpoint of Theosophy
This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.
34 pages, Paperback
First published August 12, 2015
About the author
Rudolf Steiner
4,488 books1,143 followersAuthor also wrote under the name Rudolph Steiner.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as a literary critic and published works including The Philosophy of Freedom. At the beginning of the twentieth century he founded an esoteric spiritual movement, anthroposophy, with roots in German idealist philosophy and theosophy. His teachings are influenced by Christian Gnosticism or neognosticism. Many of his ideas are pseudoscientific. He was also prone to pseudohistory.
In the first, more philosophically oriented phase of this movement, Steiner attempted to find a synthesis between science and spirituality. His philosophical work of these years, which he termed "spiritual science", sought to apply what he saw as the clarity of thinking characteristic of Western philosophy to spiritual questions, differentiating this approach from what he considered to be vaguer approaches to mysticism. In a second phase, beginning around 1907, he began working collaboratively in a variety of artistic media, including drama, dance and architecture, culminating in the building of the Goetheanum, a cultural centre to house all the arts. In the third phase of his work, beginning after World War I, Steiner worked on various ostensibly applied projects, including Waldorf education, biodynamic agriculture, and anthroposophical medicine.
Steiner advocated a form of ethical individualism, to which he later brought a more explicitly spiritual approach. He based his epistemology on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's world view in which "thinking…is no more and no less an organ of perception than the eye or ear. Just as the eye perceives colours and the ear sounds, so thinking perceives ideas." A consistent thread that runs through his work is the goal of demonstrating that there are no limits to human knowledge.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as a literary critic and published works including The Philosophy of Freedom. At the beginning of the twentieth century he founded an esoteric spiritual movement, anthroposophy, with roots in German idealist philosophy and theosophy. His teachings are influenced by Christian Gnosticism or neognosticism. Many of his ideas are pseudoscientific. He was also prone to pseudohistory.
In the first, more philosophically oriented phase of this movement, Steiner attempted to find a synthesis between science and spirituality. His philosophical work of these years, which he termed "spiritual science", sought to apply what he saw as the clarity of thinking characteristic of Western philosophy to spiritual questions, differentiating this approach from what he considered to be vaguer approaches to mysticism. In a second phase, beginning around 1907, he began working collaboratively in a variety of artistic media, including drama, dance and architecture, culminating in the building of the Goetheanum, a cultural centre to house all the arts. In the third phase of his work, beginning after World War I, Steiner worked on various ostensibly applied projects, including Waldorf education, biodynamic agriculture, and anthroposophical medicine.
Steiner advocated a form of ethical individualism, to which he later brought a more explicitly spiritual approach. He based his epistemology on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's world view in which "thinking…is no more and no less an organ of perception than the eye or ear. Just as the eye perceives colours and the ear sounds, so thinking perceives ideas." A consistent thread that runs through his work is the goal of demonstrating that there are no limits to human knowledge.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 7, 2023
I'm coming to understand that Rudolf Steiner came into the Theosophical Society in Germany's branch. He himself states that the community was fragmented and disorganized and doomed to failure. He was not so adverse to Christianity as Helena, this society's foundress.
Steiner has some fair points in the education of children. The absence of other occult groups almost universally pushed subjects that aimed at the sexualization of children. Not so with Steiner. He often repeats themes of virtue and purity as absolutely essential to the growth of spirituality, or what he would call the nourishment and development of the spiritual organ.
He believes in reincarnation, but strongly suggests people not attempt to look to deeply into the subject. I found that funny and probably is one great reason he was strongly opposed by many, together with his claims of personal experience of manifesting a spiritual 'eye' that actually eventually confirms the state of maturity, or growth, of any practitioner of the occult sciences.
The bottom line with Steiner is he was a mystic that got sucked into this society that was primarily a strong opponent of Christianity. Steiner was pulled apart from outside and from within and therefore never made it very far. He may have come into prominence had he taken up the torch Friedrich Nietzche left had he taken up the charge his sister approached Steiner with, but seeing that Rudolf was a critic of many things Nietzche wrote, he refused.
At least he had good intentions with the development of children, but, ultimately, it was not superior to any set before by Christian standard. Steiner was a well read spiritualist that got caught up with masonic side-branch groups.
Steiner has some fair points in the education of children. The absence of other occult groups almost universally pushed subjects that aimed at the sexualization of children. Not so with Steiner. He often repeats themes of virtue and purity as absolutely essential to the growth of spirituality, or what he would call the nourishment and development of the spiritual organ.
He believes in reincarnation, but strongly suggests people not attempt to look to deeply into the subject. I found that funny and probably is one great reason he was strongly opposed by many, together with his claims of personal experience of manifesting a spiritual 'eye' that actually eventually confirms the state of maturity, or growth, of any practitioner of the occult sciences.
The bottom line with Steiner is he was a mystic that got sucked into this society that was primarily a strong opponent of Christianity. Steiner was pulled apart from outside and from within and therefore never made it very far. He may have come into prominence had he taken up the torch Friedrich Nietzche left had he taken up the charge his sister approached Steiner with, but seeing that Rudolf was a critic of many things Nietzche wrote, he refused.
At least he had good intentions with the development of children, but, ultimately, it was not superior to any set before by Christian standard. Steiner was a well read spiritualist that got caught up with masonic side-branch groups.
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June 11, 2026No rating. Rudolph Steiner's writing is dense, hard, and assumes you already know what he's talking about and that you accept the premises. I thought I would be okay because this is literally only a couple of pages long, but...nope. I think reading other's commentaries and metaphysical arguments about this subject is the way to go instead (at least for me)
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews