The Foundations of Human Experience - Rudolf Steiner

. .

Résumé :
Formerly entitled The Study of Man this lecture course, newly translated for this series, contains some of the most remarkable and significant lectures ever given by Rudolf Steiner.With this seminar for teachers, given just before the opening of the first Waldorf school in September 1919, Rudolf Steiner miraculously succeeds in bringing together, clarifying, and synthesizing the insights of a lifetime's study into the reality of human nature. Unfortunately, however, because these lectures were given to teachers, they have suffered under the misconception that they are meant only for teachers. Of course, a functional understanding of their contents is necessary for any teacher desiring to teach in a way that encompasses the needs and essence of the whole child, but this understanding is also necessary for parents, counselors, and indeed anyone seeking to practice the injunction of the Delphic oracle, Know thyself!In addition, because in these lectures Steiner gives his most concise and detailed account of the nature of the human being, they are absolutely central to anyone seeking to understand anthroposophy and the anthroposophical view of the world. Anyone, therefore, who is willing to work through these lectures will discover in them a new, powerful, convincing and profoundly phenomenological anthropology or human psychology -- a view of the spiritual-physical foundations of the human being and human experience.On the other hand, for anyone wishing to study Waldorf education, this is the primary text. These are the lectures in which, for the first time, and with the full excitement of the new venture, Rudolf Steiner set forth the principles upon which the art of teaching could be renewed....

Sommaire:
Rudolf 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....