Towards Social Renewal E-Book

Rudolf Steiner

• Herausgeber: Rudolf Steiner Press
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

Although this book was first published in 1919, it remains highly relevant to social problems encountered today. Uniquely, Steiner's social thinking is not based on intellectual theory, but on a profound perception of the archetypal spiritual nature of social life. As he suggests in this classic work, society has three distinct realms - the economic, the political (individual human rights), and the cultural (spiritual). While social life as a whole is a unity, the autonomy of these three sectors should be respected if our increasing social problems are to be resolved. Steiner relates the ideals of 'liberty, equality and fraternity' to modern society. Economics calls for fraternity (brotherhood), political rights require equality, while culture should be characterised by liberty (freedom). The slogans of the French Revolution, he suggests, can only become truly manifest if our social thinking is transformed to correspond to the spiritual reality.

Leseprobe

RUDOLF STEINER (1861–1925) called his spiritual philosophy ‘anthroposophy’, meaning ‘wisdom of the human being’. As a highly developed seer, he based his work on direct knowledge and perception of spiritual dimensions. He initiated a modern and universal ‘science of spirit’, accessible to anyone willing to exercise clear and unprejudiced thinking.

From his spiritual investigations Steiner provided suggestions for the renewal of many activities, including education (both general and special), agriculture, medicine, economics, architecture, science, philosophy, religion and the arts. Today there are thousands of schools, clinics, farms and other organizations involved in practical work based on his principles. His many published works feature his research into the spiritual nature of the human being, the evolution of the world and humanity, and methods of personal development. Steiner wrote some 30 books and delivered over 6000 lectures across Europe. In 1924 he founded the General Anthroposophical Society, which today has branches throughout the world.

TOWARDS SOCIAL RENEWAL

Rethinking the Basis of Society

RUDOLF STEINER

Translated by Matthew Barton

RUDOLF STEINER PRESS

Rudolf Steiner Press Hillside House, The Square Forest Row, E. Sussex, RH18 5ES

www.rudolfsteinerpress.com

Published by Rudolf Steiner Press 2012

This new translation published by Rudolf Steiner Press 1999

First published in English as The Threefold Commonwealth, Anthroposophical Publishing Company, London, 1923 Second edition (revised and abridged) published as The Threefold SocialOrder, Anthroposophic Press, New York, 1966; reprinted 1972 Third edition published as Towards Social Renewal, Rudolf Steiner Press, London, 1977; reprinted 1992 Fourth edition, Rudolf Steiner Press 1999

Originally published in German under the title Die Kernpunkte der Socialen Frage (volume 23 in the Rudolf Steiner Gesamtausgabe or Collected Works) by Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach. This authorized translation is of the 6th German edition (1976), and is published by kind permission of the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach

Translation © Rudolf Steiner Press 1999

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 85584 302 8

Cover art and design by Andrew Morgan Typeset by DP Photosetting, Aylesbury, Bucks.

Contents

Introduction by Michael Spence

Preface to the Fourth German Edition (1920)

Preliminary Remarks on the Purpose of this Book

1. The True Dimensions of the Social Question: A Contemporary Perspective

2. Finding Real Solutions to Social Problems: Perceiving What Life Asks of Us

3. Capitalism and Social Ideas: Capital, Human Labour

4. International Relations Between Social Organisms

Appendix: To the German People and the Civilized World

Afterword: On Rudolf Steiner’s Appeal to the German People and the Civilized World by Terry M. Boardman

Notes

Introduction

The enormous developments in technology and economic productive capacity of recent times have brought humanity to the point where it is possible to produce sufficient for every human being on this earth to enjoy a reasonable standard of living, in so far as this is achieved through the supply of the physical necessities of life. And this could be realized without the present high degree of waste and pollution. That there are people who are hungry, cold, homeless or torn by strife is basically not an economic but a social problem.

The greatest need now, even more urgent than when this book was written, is to develop the thoughts and concepts with which to take hold of and transform the social life of our time.

The social conditions of today have, to a great extent, been brought about by the social and more particularly the economic thinking that arose during the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries. The rapid growth of industry based on division of labour and the rise of the banking and financial institutions brought in their wake far-reaching changes in working and living conditions for vast numbers of people. These great changes in the outer social life came at the same time as an awakening of individuality, a consciousness of self, within human beings.

This book was written by Rudolf Steiner at the beginning of the twentieth century and so throws an important light on the events and thoughts of that time. On first reading, particularly of Chapter 1, the reader might be led to question how something written during the early years of the twentieth century in central Europe and for a German speaking people can be relevant today for an English speaking audience. But it does throw a revealing light on the nature and origins of the economic and social thinking of today as well as on what needs to come about in the future.

Out of deep and earnest research Rudolf Steiner came to a perception and a profound understanding of the underlying ‘threefold’ nature of all existence. He did not think up the threefold social order as a possible solution to the problems of his time. Just as the individual human being has a threefold nature of body, soul and spirit, so too does the ‘Being of Earthly Humanity’, or society as a whole have a threefold nature in its three quite distinct members, Cultural, Rights and Economic. Without basing our understanding and work on this threefold nature it will not be possible to bring healing to the disorders and aberrations of society today.

It is not easy to grasp this threefold nature, about which there is much confusion and many differing views as to its real nature. For this reason it is very necessary to turn again and again to one who was able to look directly into the spiritual foundations of earthly human society. Anyone intending to work towards a healing of social life today, at whatever level, will find it essential to get to grips with the perceptions and insights which Rudolf Steiner formulated in this book and in his many lectures. The reader will of course still need to test his own understanding of these insights through objective observation of life as it reveals itself today.

Though much of the outer shell of what he gives us in this book is out of date, the essential details of the threefold structure of society are just as relevant today as they were when he wrote it. He was speaking to a particular people in a particular social environment. He would speak differently now, but the basic threefold structure of society that he pointed to has not changed.

A further point: The three spheres of society cannot simply be equated with the three members of the human being, body, soul and spirit. An oversimplified but helpful picture would be to say that the economic sphere provides for the physical bodily needs, and the spiritual or cultural sphere nurtures all that arises out of the soul/spiritual or supersensible nature of the human being. The rights sphere is of a different nature; it is something purely of the earthly state.

Rudolf Steiner saw the urgent necessity for transforming our present unitary society to one formed on the basis of its threefold nature. During the years immediately following the First World War he gave a great part of his time and energy to this. He saw that the time had already come when human evolution itself demanded that social life be made threefold. Observation of the wider social life of today and of the forces that bring conflict, division and suffering, promoting economic life and material values to the exclusion of the awakening of the true human spirit, suggests that its time is long overdue.

The continuing importance of this book cannot be overstated.

Michael Spence

February 1999

Preface to the Fourth German Edition (1920)

People who apply Utopian ideas to contemporary society fail to understand the challenges it poses. Starting from particular views, experiences and feelings, it is easy to believe that this or that social form must inevitably bring about human happiness; and such belief can come to seem overwhelmingly persuasive. But in trying to impose such a belief, one can completely fail to address the nub of the ‘social problem’.

It may seem extreme and nonsensical to say so, but it is nevertheless true that even if someone possessed a perfect theoretical solution to social questions it would be wholly impractical to believe that he could cure the ills of humanity simply by making this available. It is no longer either right or feasible in our age to believe that we can influence society by such means. People’s hearts and minds cannot accept or implement social forms dictated from without. They can no longer say to themselves: ‘This person knows what is needed, so we will do what he thinks right.’

This present book, which has already reached a fairly wide audience, takes account of the fact that people do not want social ideas imposed upon them. Those who accuse it of Utopianism entirely misunderstand its underlying intentions. And people who themselves wish to think only in Utopian ways, and who therefore read their own ideas into what another has to say, recognize its aims least of all.

It is by now common knowledge among those who really think practically that Utopian ideas lead nowhere, however convincing they may seem. Yet many still feel that they should propound such ideas to their fellow human beings—for example in the realm of economics. But they should realize that they are wasting their breath, for other people cannot make any use of their suggestions.

It is important to recognize the truth of this, for it points us to an important fact of modern public and political life: the way people think easily loses touch with the demands of reality—economic reality for example. Can we hope to be equal to the disarray and confusion in contemporary life if we tackle it with a kind of thinking which bears little relation to reality?

This may well be an uncomfortable question to ask, for few people like to accept that their thinking is out of touch. Yet we need to admit this if we are to make any headway with the ‘social question’. We need to recognize that the divorce between thought and reality is a problem of central importance to all modern civilization. Only by doing so will we start to see what society needs.

What is really involved here is the way in which contemporary intellectual and spiritual life1 is conducted. In recent times humanity has developed a life of the mind which is highly dependent on political institutions and economic forces. As children we are already ‘plugged in’ to the educational structure of the state, and are educated in a manner which the economic circumstances of our environment dictate.

It would be easy to think that this leaves us well fitted for modern life. The state, one might imagine, is thus able to shape educational institutions—and therefore almost all intellectual and cultural life—in ways that will best serve human society. Likewise, it is easy to believe that people become useful members of society by being educated in accordance with the economic realities of their environment, and then, as a result of such education, coming to occupy a place in society which these economic conditions assign to them.

The task of this book, in contrast (and it is one which will be looked upon with little favour in the present climate), is to show that confusion and chaos in public life is directly connected with the dependency of the life of the mind—of spirit and culture—on political and economic factors, and that the liberation of this cultural and spiritual life from such dependency is an important aspect of the burning social problems which beset us.

This involves taking a stand against mistaken but very widespread ideas. The state’s control of education has been regarded for a long time as something entirely beneficial for humanity’s progress. And people with socialistic ideas can hardly imagine society not educating the individual on its own terms, to serve it.

So people have little inclination to recognize something essential: that what might once, at an earlier stage of human history, have been right and proper can become misplaced and wrong at a later stage. It was a necessary stage in the development of human, social relationships for the circles which in medieval times oversaw education and culture to be relieved of this function, and for the state to take control. But to perpetuate this is a serious social error.

The first section of this book aims to demonstrate this. Within the framework of the state, cultural and spiritual life has grown towards freedom; but it cannot become fully free within these strictures. It needs to become autonomous. By its very nature, spiritual life is now asking to be a fully independent limb of the social organism. Education, from which all spiritual and cultural life emerges and develops, must be admininstered by the educators, without any interference from political or economic quarters. Every teacher should be allowed time not only to teach but also to be involved in school administration. He would then be able to organize the running of his school with the same care that he gives to his actual teaching. No one who is not fully involved in actual teaching should dictate what a teacher ought to do—not parliament, not even someone who was once a teacher but is no longer. The actual experience of teaching should flow directly into its administration. Of course it goes without saying that such a system relies upon the highest degree of professional competence and objectivity.

One might object that even such a self-governing cultural and spiritual life will not avoid every pitfall, and will also be far from perfect. But we are not asking for perfection. All anyone can do is strive for the best that is possible. A child’s developing capacities will truly come to serve society only if those people oversee his education whose judgement is based on independent and purely educational perspectives. How far a child can be helped forward in one way or another is a decision that can be made only within an independent cultural community. And how to implement such decisions is also a matter for such a community alone. From such an independent source the state and the economy can then receive a strength and vitality which would be unavailable if they themselves shape cultural life according to their own perspectives.

Furthermore, even the curriculum and structure of training centres directly serving state or economy should be run by those who administer the free life of the spirit. Law schools, commercial, agricultural and industrial colleges could all be shaped and structured by a life of the mind that is unconstricted by economic or political pressures. This book is likely to arouse much opposition, especially when the conclusions of such a point of view are correctly drawn. But why should people be opposed to it? Because of an unconscious, anti-social prejudice that believes educators are impractical people, divorced from the realities of life. How could they possibly be able to organize things by themselves and serve practical needs properly? Such organization must of course be taken care of by other, practically minded people, and then the educators can just follow the guidelines laid down for them!

Whoever thinks like this fails to see that it is only when teachers are not allowed to decide for themselves either their broadest aims or the smallest details of their activity that they become impractical and remote from reality. However many guidelines are heaped upon them by ‘practical’ people, they will not be able to educate properly and will not really equip those in their care for the practical business of life. The anti-social tendencies of our time have arisen because people’s social sensitivity and awareness is not developed through their education. Social sensitivity can only be developed through a kind of education that is guided and governed by people who are socially sensitive themselves. We will not begin to make headway with the social problems of our times until we see that the way in which we think about education and cultural life is a vital part of the equation. Anti-social tendencies are not only created through economic structures, but also through people behaving in anti-social ways within these structures. And it is anti-social to let young people be educated by teachers who, by having the aims and content of their activity externally and artificially forced upon them, have become divorced from reality.

The state establishes law schools and demands that the law which is taught there be in accordance with its own statutes and views. If, on the other hand, schools were founded which derived their ideas about law from a free and independent life of spirit, and if the state was to receive the fruits of this independent thought, it would be fertilized by ideas rendered living and vital by such independence.

But within this free life of the spirit will stand people who can really grow into the practice of life through their own perspectives. Nothing can become truly practical that derives from an education dictated by so-called ‘experts’ and delivered by teachers divorced from reality. To be effective, educators need to have formed and formulated their own, practical understanding of life. In the course of this book I shall give some more detailed suggestions about how this general principal of a free life of spirit could be implemented.

Utopian-minded people will approach this book with all sorts of questions. Artists, and others whose work is closely connected with the mind and spirit, will be worried that their talents may not thrive better within a free cultural life than in one in which, as at present, they receive support from the state and economy. Such doubters should remember that this book has no Utopian agenda, that it is not trying to lay down theoretical prescriptions about how things should be. Instead, its aim is to stimulate the formation of social communities, whose shared experience can bring about socially desirable conditions. If we base our view of life on real experience instead of theoretical preconceptions, we will see that creative people would be more likely to find a truer evaluation of their work in a free cultural community whose practice derives from its own independent ideas and values.