Freedom Of Thought And Societal Forces

13 lectures, Stuttgart, October 3-15, 1922 (CW 217) "This cycle of lectures 'to the younger generation' speaks of a pathway to a Michaelic harvest for ears that have the goodwill to hear." --Carlo Pietzner Rudolf Steiner presented these lectures to about a hundred German young people who hoped to bring Waldorf education into the culture of their time and for the future. Steiner stressed upon his listeners the great importance of "self-education" as a prerequisite to all other education. His was an attempt to guide the youth toward understanding themselves within the world situation. Steiner showed how the stream of generations had been interrupted by eighteenth-century intellectualism, emphasizing that they would have to reject the general acceptance of impersonal social routine, dead intellectual thinking, and personal and social egoism. Steiner discussed the need, instead, for a form of education permeated by art and feeling, which brings inner nourishment that can grow throughout one's life. It was his view that, without such an education, society will not reach a future built on moral love and mutual human confidence--a truly human culture. A previous edition of these lectures was published as The Younger Generation: Educational and Spiritual Impulses for LIfe in the Twentieth Century (1967). Original German title: Geistige Wirkenskräfte im Zusammenleben von alter und junger Generation. Pädagogischer Jugendkurs (GA 217). This Collected Works edition includes a new introduction, notes, and an index.

6 lectures in Ulm, Berlin, and Stuttgart, May 26-December 30, 1919 (CW 333) Freedom of Thought and Societal Forces offers a broad overview of Steiner's fresh thinking on what he called the "threefold social order." He acknowledged that the demand for social change derives above all from the working class, whom industrialization had forced into a kind of indentured life dominated by economics. From Steiner's perspective, the underlying issue is not just economic, however, but also spiritual or cultural--culture and the cultured classes have become estranged from real life. Society needed a "free" culture that includes all classes. It also needs to shift labor into the legal sphere of rights, the only place where workers can find real freedom in society. Capital, too, needs to be liberated from egotism and allowed, like goods, to circulate freely. Above all, Steiner understood that social realities cannot be separated from the spiritual realities of human existence. From this perspective, we lack knowledge of ourselves as spiritual beings, and thinking has become abstract. To remedy this, we must first acknowledge it and then develop modesty and humility. Next we must increase our capacity to love one another and the world. Approaching this reality from another side, we see that what ordinary individual thinking afflicts culture in general, which becomes removed from reality. Culture, like thinking, must become alive and universally human. This is impossible, however, unless we develop what Steiner calls "freedom of thought." Authentic freedom of thought is always ethical and overcomes egotism. Indeed, a more general exercise of freedom in thought, as Steiner conceives it, provides a way through the twin dangers of materialism and abstraction--that is, through ahrimanic and luciferic worldviews--which together threaten society in both the narrow sense through nationalism and globally through geopolitics. CONTENTS: Introduction by Christopher Bamford 1. The Threefold Aspect of the Societal and Class Question (Ulm, May 26, 1919): Intellectual knowledge as the servant of the state. The call for human rights. Limitation of the economy by natural resources on one side and the sphere of rights on the other. Practical implications of insights into what our society needs. Concluding remarks. 2. Insight into the Supersensible Human Being and the Task of our Time (Ulm, July 22, 1919): Developing body-free thinking. The mystery of individual human connections. Humanity faces a choice between social chaos and freedom of spirit 3. Realizing the Ideals of Libery, Equality, and Fraternity through Social Threefolding (Berlin, September 15, 1919): The actual background of socialist theories. Nationalizing the economy fails to solve social problems. Goetheanism as the counterpole to Americanism. 4. Spiritual Science, Freedom of Thought, and Societal Forces (Stuttgart, December 19, 1919): The Goetheanum as an artistic expression of spiritual-scientific sensibilities. The limitations of natural scientific thinking. The cause of the disconnect between faith and knowledge. The real task of the German people. 5. The Assets and Liabilities of World Cultures (Stuttgart, December 27, 1919): Nietzsche on the extirpation of the German spirit. David Friedrich Strauss rejects empty religious phrases. The decadent spiritual culture of the East and the mechanistic element in Western civilization. Hamerling's homunculus as the typical soulless egotist. The new way to the Christ. 6. Spirit-Cognition as a Basis for Action (Stuttgart, December 30, 1919): The future task of Goethean science and the Goethean worldview. The historical foundations of intellectuality and the lost perception of the essential nature of the human being. Human intentions and actions need an infusion of spiri

"A History of Freedom of Thought" by J. B. Bury. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

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"A History of Freedom of Thought" by J.B. Bury is a seminal work that delves into the evolution of intellectual liberty and the struggles for free expression throughout history. Written by John Bagnell Bury, a respected historian of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the book explores how the concept of freedom of thought has evolved over time, from ancient civilizations to modern societies. Bury examines various historical periods and cultural contexts, tracing the development of ideas and the challenges faced by those who dared to challenge prevailing orthodoxies. He explores pivotal moments in history where individuals and movements fought for the right to express dissenting opinions, often at great personal risk. Throughout the book, Bury highlights the contributions of key figures such as philosophers, scientists, religious dissenters, and political activists who played crucial roles in advancing the cause of intellectual freedom. He also analyzes the societal and institutional forces that have both promoted and hindered the progress of free thought. By chronicling the struggles and triumphs of those who have championed freedom of thought, Bury's work offers valuable insights into the importance of intellectual liberty in shaping the course of human history. It remains a significant contribution to the study of civil liberties and continues to be relevant in contemporary discussions about the role of free expression in democratic societies.

We live in a time of multiple challenges to our rights and freedoms – not only in authoritarian regimes but also in liberal democracies around the globe. As the storm clouds of crisis gather, Rudolf Steiner’s social vision – now a century old – offers a clear way forward. Radical in his time and still so today, Steiner’s ‘social threefolding’ is not conceived as a logical ‘system’. Rather, his picture of society as a living threefold unity, as a social ‘organism’, is an artistic insight that needs to be grasped imaginatively. To understand its three dimensions – the economic, the political-legal and cultural-spiritual spheres – and how they relate to each other, is to experience them inwardly. This requires a living, creative thinking that is able to enter the archetypal forces behind the concepts: a modern-day, truly Goethean approach to the social sciences. In an illuminating study, Hoffmann’s dynamic presentation enables us to develop precisely such an artistic–imaginative understanding of the threefold social organism. He achieves this through clear descriptions of its principles and practical governance, whilst offering wise advice regarding the adaptation of education – at school and tertiary levels – for a threefold society.

Most people who live in open societies, especially in the West, take freedom of thought and expression for granted. Yet throughout most of history, independent thinking was discouraged and often persecuted. The battle for independence of mind continued for centuries. In Freedom of Thought, J. B. Bury provides a dramatic survey of intellectual history, clearly and eloquently describing the struggle for intellectual freedom from ancient times to the beginning of the 20th century. He guides the reader from the flowering of rational inquiry in early Greece, through the suppression of free thought during much of the Middle Ages, to the rediscovery of classical philosophy in the Renaissance, and finally to the growth of rationalism beginning with the Age of Reason in the 17th century. Along the way, Bury explains the key events that contributed to the modern rational understanding of nature and offers concise sketches of the many important persons'philosophers, scientists, and writers'who c