Necessity and Freedom: (CW 166)

5 lectures, Berlin, January 25 – February 8, 1916 (CW 166)

The age-old question of free will is still a mystery to most people today. Even religious and philosophical circles have difficulty reconciling the concepts of morality, destiny, karma, and necessity with true freedom. Steiner illuminates questions of freedom and necessity, and guilt and innocence, by discussing various aspects of evolution, history, and culture and showing that human beings carry the responsibility for these developments. He shows that the past represents necessity, whereas true freedom belongs to the future.

Steiner states that, whereas the human I is revealed in acts of volition on the physical plane, ultimately we will find our true "I"-being only through the Christ impulse and the completely free act of the Mystery of Golgotha.

German source edition: Notwendigkeit und Freiheit im Weltengeschehen und im menschlichen Handeln (GA 166).

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.