The Riddles of Philosophy by Rudolf Steiner.pdf

The Riddles

Philosophy

RUDOLF STEINER

THE ANTHROPOSOPHIC PRESS SPRING VALLEY NEW

YORK This volume is a translation of Die Rätsel der

Philosophie (Vol. 18 in the Bibliographic Survey, 1961).

by Anthroposophic Press, Inc.

Library of Congress Card No. 73-89784

This translation has been authorized for the Western

Hemisphere by the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung,

Dornach, Switzerland

Printed in the United States of America

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction by Fritz C. A. Koelln

Preface to the 1923 Edition

Preface to the 1918 Edition

Preface to the 1914 Edition

Part I

I Guiding Thoughts on the Method of Presentation

II The World Conception of the Greek Thinkers

III Thought Life from the Beginning of the Christian

Era to John Scotus Erigena

IV The World Conceptions of the Middle Ages

V The World Conceptions of the Modern Age of

Thought Evolution

VI The Age of Kant and Goethe

VII The Classics of World and Life Conceptions.

VIII Reactionary World Conceptions

IX The Radical World Conceptions

Part II

Introductory Remarks to the 1914 Edition

I The Struggle Over the Spirit

II Darwinism and World Conception

III The World as Illusion

IV Echoes of the Kantian Mode of Conception

V World Conceptions of Scientific Factuality

VI Modern Idealistic World Conceptions .

VII Modern Man and His World Conception

VIII A Brief Outline of an Approach to Anthroposophy

Index

Introduction

Rudolf Steiner's Riddles of Philosophy, Presented in an

Outline of Its History is not a history of philosophy in the

usual sense of the word. It does not give a history of the

philosophical systems, nor does it present a number of

philosophical problems historically. Its real concern touches

on something deeper than this, on riddles rather than

problems. Philosophical concepts, systems and problems are,

to be sure, to be dealt with in this book. But it is not their

history that is to be described here. Where they are discussed

they become symptoms rather than the objects of the search.

The search itself wants to reveal a process that is overlooked

in the usual history of philosophy. It is the mysterious process

in which philosophical thinking appears in human history.

Philosophical thinking as it is here meant is known only in

Western Civilisation. Oriental philosophy has its origin in a

different kind of consciousness, and it is not to be considered

in this book.

What is new here is the treatment of the history of philosophic

thinking as a manifestation of the evolution of human

consciousness. Such a treatment requires a fine sense of

observation. Not merely the thoughts must be observed, but

behind them the thinking in which they appear.

To follow Steiner in his subtle description of the process of the

metamorphosis of this thinking in the history of philosophy

we should remember he sees the human consciousness in an

evolution. It has not always been what it is now, and what it is

now it will not be in the future. This is a fundamental

conception of anthroposophy. The metamorphosis of the

consciousness is not only described in Steiner's

anthroposophical books but in a number of them directions

are given from which we can learn to participate in this

transformation actively. This is explicitly done not only in his

Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and its Attainment

but also in certain chapters of his Theosophy, An Outline

of Occult Science and several other of his anthroposophical

books.

The objection may be raised at this point that the application

of concepts derived from spiritual exercises is not admissible

in a field of pure philosophical studies, where every concept

used should be clearly comprehensible without any

preconceived ideas. Steiner's earlier philosophical books did

not seem to imply any such presuppositions and his

anthroposophical works therefore appear to mark a definite

departure from his earlier philosophical ones.

It is indeed significant that the anthroposophical works

appear only after a long period of philosophic studies. A

glance at Rudolf Steiner's bibliography shows that it is only

after twenty years of philosophical studies that his

anthroposophy as a science of the spirit appears on the scene.

The purely philosophical publications begin with his

Introductions to Goethe's Natural Scientific

Writings (1883 – 97) and with the Fundamental Outline

of a Theory of Knowledge Implicit in Goethe's World

Conception (1886). They are followed by his own theory of

knowledge presented in Truth and Science in 1892 and his

Philosophy of Freedom (also translated as Philosophy

of Spiritual Activity ) of 1894. This work presents clearly

the climax of Steiner's philosophy and it should be studied

carefully by anyone who intends to arrive at a valid judgment

of his later anthroposophy. It is, however, still several years

before the books appear that contain the result of his spiritual

science. Not only his book on Nietzsche, a Fighter against his

Time of 1895 and his Goethe's World Conception of 1897 but

also his World-and Life-Conceptions in the Nineteenth

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