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The Social Future

Culture, Equality, and the Economy (CW 332a)

Paperback
June 2013
9781621480280
More details
  • Publisher
    SteinerBooks
  • Published
    21st June 2013
  • ISBN 9781621480280
  • Language English
  • Pages 158 pp.
  • Size 5.5" x 8.5"
$15.00

6 public lectures in Zurich, October 24–30, 1919 (cw 332a)

In 1919, shortly after World War I, the structure of society and the economy, both in Germany and globally, became a primary concern for Rudolf Steiner. In addition to writing The Threefold Social Order, in which he presented his ideas for social renewal, Steiner also gave lecture courses on the topic that year, including:

  • Conscious Society: Anthroposophy and the Social Question (CW 189)
  • Impulses of the Past and Future in Social Events (CW 190)
  • Spiritual–Scientific Treatment of Social and Pedagogical Questions (CW 192)
  • The Esoteric Aspect of the Social Question (CW 193)
  • The Social Question (CW 328)

Also that year, Rudolf Steiner published his “Appeal to the German People and the Cultural World," which began: “Resting on secure foundations with the assurance of enduring for untold ages”—this is what the German people believed of their empire, founded half a century ago. Today, they can see only its ruins. Deep searching of the soul must follow from such an experience.

In The Social Future, Rudolf Steiner presents what he saw as the underlying social problems of his time and offers his approach to solutions for a more successful and equitable social future. What he has to say is remarkably suited to our time, almost a century later. His predictions have come to pass, yet few of his recommendations have been implemented on any large scale.

The Social Future is a translation from German of Soziale Zukunft (GA 332a), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, 1977.

C O N T E N T S:

1. The Social Question: Humanities, Law, and the Economy
2. Economic Organization on an Associative Basis
3. Legal Issues and Democracy
4. Spiritual Science, Education, and Social Art
5. Spirituality, Politics, Economics, and a Threefold Society
6. Nations, the Global Economy, and the Threefold Society

Bibliography

Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Steiner (b. Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner, 1861–1925) was born in the small village of Kraljevec, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now in Croatia), where he grew up. As a young man, he lived in Weimar and Berlin, where he became a well-published scientific, literary, and philosophical scholar, known especially for his work with Goethe’s scientific writings. At the beginning of the twentieth century, he began to develop his early philosophical principles into an approach to systematic research into psychological and spiritual phenomena. Formally beginning his spiritual teaching career under the auspices of the Theosophical Society, Steiner came to use the term Anthroposophy (and spiritual science) for his philosophy, spiritual research, and findings. The influence of Steiner’s multifaceted genius has led to innovative and holistic approaches in medicine, various therapies, philosophy, religious renewal, Waldorf education, education for special needs, threefold economics, biodynamic agriculture, Goethean science, architecture, and the arts of drama, speech, and eurythmy. In 1924, Rudolf Steiner founded the General Anthroposophical Society, which today has branches throughout the world. He died in Dornach, Switzerland.