The Esoteric Aspect of the Social Question E-Book

Rudolf Steiner

• Herausgeber: Rudolf Steiner Press
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

Although recent years have seen major advances in science and technology, the social aspect of life still presents major problems for western societies. The general increase in destructive, antisocial behaviour over past decades has raised the profile of social issues, yet effective ideas to tackle the difficulties are often nowhere to be found. Many decades ago, Rudolf Steiner suggested new ways of organizing society and engaging with social questions. This book presents his inner, esoteric perspective on such concerns. The starting point, asserts Steiner, must be the proper valuing of the human element in the world, and a deeper understanding of its relation to nature and the cosmos. The organization of society cannot be made in an arbitrary way, but should reflect the relationship of human beings to the spiritual world. Steiner goes on to discuss the threefold archetype of social life - the political state, economics, and the spiritual/cultural aspect - and how these can interact in a healthy way, leading to a vibrant, evolving society.These popular lectures - originally published as The Inner Aspect of the Social Question - appear here in a new translation and with the addition of a previously unpublished lecture.

Leseprobe

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 6000 lectures across Europe. In 1924 he founded the General Anthroposophical Society, which today has branches throughout the world.

THE ESOTERIC ASPECT OF THE SOCIAL QUESTION

The Individual and Society

RUDOLF STEINER

Four lectures given between 4 February and 9 March 1919

RUDOLF STEINER PRESS

Rudolf Steiner Press Hillside House, The Square Forest Row, E. Sussex RH18 5ES

www.rudolfsteinerpress.com

Published by Rudolf Steiner Press 2012

First published in English as The Inner Aspect of the Social Question by Anthroposophical Publishing Co., London 1950 Reprinted 1974

Originally published in German under the title Der innere Aspekt des sozialen Rätsles, Luziferische Vergangenheit und ahrimanische Zukunft (volume 193 in the Rudolf Steiner Gesamtausgabe or Collected Works) by Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach. This authorized translation is published by kind permission of the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach

Translated by Pauline Wehrle Translation © Rudolf Steiner Press 2001

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 85584 343 1

Cover by Andrew Morgan Typeset by DP Photosetting, Aylesbury, Bucks.

Contents

Lecture summaries

Introduction by Stephen E. Usher

1. Zurich, 4 February 1919

2. Berne, 8 February 1919

3. Zurich, 11 February 1919

4. Zurich, 9 March 1919

Notes

Publisher’s note on Rudolf Steiner’s lectures

Lecture summaries

Lecture 1

On valuing rightly the human element in the world, and how a deeper understanding of its relation to nature and the cosmos may be kindled in the soul; how the true strength of the spirit is to be sought for.

Lecture 2

Anthroposophists can have an esoteric understanding of the social question as distinct from an exoteric one. Human beings relate to one another in two ways: through karma, connected with previous lives on earth, and in spiritual/cultural life, connected with existence in the spiritual world before birth. The state must include nothing that reaches into the supersensible world in either direction, beyond birth or beyond death. People’s connection with the economic sphere must become more and more conscious. Entry into the subhuman realm leads to a compensating human development after death. Totems. Indulgences. A bridge from the spirit in the world to everyday life is needed. Life has to be seen in a real way.

Lecture 3

The membering of the social organism in accordance with the various ways in which human beings are related to the spiritual world. The Mystery of Golgotha as an event for all humankind. Nationalism overcome by Christianity. Spiritual pathways to the Christ: the way of thought and the way of will.

Lecture 4

True and illusory reality in social life. The distinction between a living truth and a living lie needs to be deeply engraved in human souls today. The inner connection between spiritual/cultural life and life before birth. The former should be a reflection of supersensible existence. The political state is just the opposite; its concern should be only with the things that belong to the life between birth and death. In economic life there is an unconscious unfolding of impulses which work on beyond death – seeds of sympathies which are destined to develop in the life after death. Spiritual/cultural life, on the other hand, should be a sort of healing agent for the remains of the antipathies which we bring over from our life before birth into the present. It is only in the diversity of relationships between these three members of the social organism that true reality resides.

Introduction

This volume contains four lectures given by Rudolf Steiner to members of the Anthroposophical Society during February and March of 1919. The lectures constituted a kind of esoteric parallel to the extensive public lectures Steiner was delivering throughout the German-speaking world on the burning social issues of the day. The members to whom he spoke were familiar with his basic esoteric writings, notably Theosophy and An Outline of Esoteric Science. The reader unfamiliar with these works will find this volume easier to follow if he first acquaints himself with the aforementioned books, which serve as an introduction to Steiner’s world view and vocabulary.

These four lectures constitute a small but important fraction of Steiner’s social thinking in the aftermath of the Great War, which had come to an end only four months earlier on 11 November 1918. Already in 1917 Steiner formulated his fundamental idea of the threefold social order, namely, the idea that in modern times human society has three distinct activities: the cultural, the political and the economic. He argued that social health would emerge from a proper understanding of the distinction between these three activities and a corresponding division of the social order into three separate spheres that attended to the three activities.

The effort of 1917 was formulated in the Memorandum of 1917* after a German aristocrat, Count Lerchenfeld, had asked Steiner for guidance in thinking about the war and of what might be done to bring order out of the chaos. Working with Count Lerchenfeld and Count Polzer-Hoditz, Steiner circulated the Memorandum to leading figures in the German and Austrian governments. Probably the most notable development occurred when Prince Maximillian von Baden met Steiner and discussed the contents of the Memorandum around 20 January 1918. Von Baden became convinced that middle Europe should be reconstructed on the basis of the threefold idea. As Steiner had anticipated, von Baden was appointed Chancellor of the German Reich by the Kaiser, in September 1918, and was asked to negotiate an armistice.

Von Baden journeyed to Berlin with the intention of putting the threefold social order forward as Germany’s plan for its own organization after an armistice, i.e., negotiating this as a condition of an armistice. Before this could happen however, Ludendorff, the leading German general, insisted that an armistice had to take place within 24 hours due to the rapid deterioration of the German army’s situation in the field. This left von Baden no time to bring the threefold idea forward. Instead he was forced to negotiate on the basis of Wilson’s 14 points which had already been introduced to the world. Immediately after von Baden had accepted an armistice based on the 14 points, Ludendorff noted that he had been mistaken and that the situation in the field had not really necessitated so hasty an armistice.*

By the end of 1918 Steiner recognized that nothing could be accomplished by trying to bring insight to the German leadership. So he shifted his focus to the creation of a grassroots movement for the threefold social order. On 6 March 1919, his ‘Appeal to the German People’† was circulated to enormous numbers of readers as a newspaper insert. It appeared in most of the major German-speaking cities and attracted international attention.

His book Towards Social Renewal was published in April and fast became a best-seller in Europe and a few years later in England when a translation appeared.‡ Writing in the London Quarterly Review in 1923 W. F. Lofthouse said of Towards Social Renewal that it was ‘perhaps the most widely read of all books on politics appearing since the war ...’ In that same year the book received a lengthy review in the New York Times Book Review (14 January 1923). It was also reviewed in the two leading American economics journals, The Journal of Political Economy (1923) and The American Economic Review (March 1924). In addition to writing the ‘Appeal to the German People’ and Towards Social Renewal, Steiner lectured continuously in public forums during 1919 and the early 20s on threefold ideas.

*

In addition to followers and supporters, a growing circle of enemies became increasingly aware of Steiner’s activity. An article of 15 March 1921, in the National Socialist newspaper Voelkischen Beobachter, is the most extraordinary attack in print. Below is an English translation:

It is a plain lie to the German people when, on the order of the German government, one maintains that Simons would have refused. The fact is that Simons had declared himself ready to accept the Treaty of Versailles for five years and, thereby, practically forever. It is straight-on monstrous impudence when this Mr Simons, who is not a reactionary man of God but, on the contrary, an employee of the German people, presumes to announce that the German people cannot correctly value their own capacity for work. It is possible that Simons can actually value it better; the man appears to have exactly valued the capacity for work of the German people. In the course of the London affair there now rises to the surface, by degree, such mysterious accompanying circumstances that it is not only appropriate but also quite necessary to inspect somewhat closer this Mr Minister – the intimate friend of the Gnostic Anthroposophist Rudolf Steiner, himself the adherent of the Threefold Social Order which is one of the many completely Jewish methods of destroying the people’s normal state of mind – to see whether his mindless face, mindless according to the opinion of Lloyd George, is really only the result of the lack of spirit or whether it is the larva behind which something else is concealed...

Poland will occupy Upper Silesia. Germany will rebel. France rumbles occupation of the Ruhr in the event of German opposition, and then Mr Simons with his mindless, stupid face, as Mr Lloyd George said, will again represent the German people. Then this friend of Germany and of Rudolf Steiner will again make us observe that, in order to keep the Ruhr, we could trade-off Upper Silesia more quickly because Upper Silesia dispatches 43 million tons of coal and the Ruhr 115 million tons. So will he persuade us, a God-and-reason-forsaken people, only yes, in God’s heavenly will no real opposition, only peace and prudence, the recognized war cry of the German newspaper Lion and the Levite. We will for the sake of peace, of quiet, and of the Ruhr region renounce Upper Silesia and six months later, due to some other cause, will lose the Ruhr region anyway to the amusement of the whole world. Mr Simons will still have his stupid gaze. As Lloyd George says, he has no mind.