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

COLOR- AND IMAGE-SATURATED THINKING

Since the end of the nineteenth century the spiritual evolution of humanity has led toward a more mobile living thinking in which the abstract and fixed relation of consciousness to language is dissolved. Language becomes more gesture-like in character as consciousness is filled with color and image.

When this fact of spiritual evolution is negated in the school system, in the forms of government and in economic relations, it leads to an unconscious frustration, a frustration which explodes in acts of violence and war.

Healing will come to social life when the inner mobility of soul acquired through the science of the spirit is allowed to mold new social forms. The reader will find a stimulation to inner activity and a wealth of insight into social life in this important volume by Rudolf Steiner.

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.