Spiritual Science as a Foundation for Social Forms (CW 199)

17 lectures, Dornach and Berlin, August 6 - September 18 (CW 199)


"We come closer and closer to total decline precisely because our intellectuals will not venture to construe the tasks in this world by utilizing ideas other than those gained from waking life—from what lies between birth and death" —Rudolf Steiner (from the book)

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the spiritual evolution of humanity has led toward a more flexible and living way of thinking, one in which the abstract and fixed relationship between consciousness and language is dissolving. Language is becoming more like "gestures" as consciousness fills with color and images. When this aspect of spiritual evolution is negated by modern education, it leads to a deep-seated frustration that explodes into acts of violence and, ultimately, war. Healing will come to society only with an inner flexibility of soul acquired through a real science of spirit, which must be allowed to mold new social forms. 

Spiritual Science as a Foundation for Social Forms will stimulate readers to real inner activity and a wealth of insights into culture and society. These are perhaps Steiner's most exciting talks on the fundamentals of social renewal. Among the themes he considers are spiritual science as a knowledge of action; the twelve senses of the human being in their relation to Imagination, Inspiration, and Intuition; the science of initiation and the impulse for freedom; and viewpoints on the forming of healthy social judgments. This volume provides a wealth of inspiration showing that healing will come only when we have acquired the appropriate ways of thinking needed to shape a new society.

Spiritual Science as a Foundation for Social Forms is a translation from German of Geisteswissenschaft als Erkenntnis der Grundimpulse sozialer Gestaltung (GA 199).