[1] Wenn ich beobachte, wie eine Billardkugel, die gestoßen wird, ihre Bewegung auf eine andere überträgt, so bleibe ich auf den Verlauf dieses beobachteten Vorganges ganz ohne Einf

Here are some short title suggestions. A new title for Chapter 7 is an interesting challenge because the chapter examines what we consider to be real or not real.

New Title Suggestions
1. Conscious Human Action
2. The Desire To Know
3. Thinking Serving Knowing
4. Perceiving The World
5. Knowing The World
6. Human Individuality
7. Knowing Reality

This is a revised chapter 1 for the Study Course for reading on the web. It is a different project from the hard copy version, but the extra thought will improve both. The only 1918 Steiner revision kept was in the opening sentence, adding 'natural laws'.  It was edited to simpler American English and for the web reader with more paragraph breaks.

I am finding out that the 1918 revisions are turning out to have been long time stumbling blocks to reading comprehension. This must be because you usually need a belief in theosophy for them to make sense, like adding 'spiritual' freedom to the opening sentence. What is that supposed to be? I will do chapter 2 next.

Joel comments: Talking about PoF will never replace trying to live it in Life.  What I'd like to see here is more reports of what people are actually experiencing in Life, and less commentary on translations and meanings of the terms.  Maybe you can improve the map, and if that is the point of this website, then fine.   I'm more interested in helping people meet the dilemmas of actual Life - their biography, than I am in discussing the meaning of words.

We have the start of a very successful translation collaboration, but this will interest only a handful of people. The translation project is a full time job for myself. I have been wondering how the website could get involved in something else. Joel's recommendation of sharing life experience would be of interest to many. Maybe Joel or someone else wants to lead a study group or research project?

A study group or research project could move through the book with an emphasis on applying what is read. Perhaps it could be about trying to verify Steiner's soul observations, which could be listed and discussed. The results could be archived in a way that would help others in their application of the book. Then the website is engaged in understanding theory and life application.

Any suggestions?

Toddlers have come forward to fund the POF website and work. They have offered cash in exchange for snacks and play. "This home business will allow me to work at home and give me the time to philosophize," Tom said today while changing a diaper. "I have always believed in the younger generation and thought they were the generation that could embrace The Philosophy of Freedom, so it seems appropriate that they would be the ones to keep things afloat." Tom plans to provide care for up to 6 toddlers and preschoolers.

Translation process
First Draft: Tom's draft mainly focused on meaning written for clarity.
Second Draft: John's draft is mainly to work out the phrasing but will also look at meaning.
After others have a chance to comment this draft will go to John as the basis for his draft.
Please add any comments to this draft to improve meaning or phrasing.

New book out in German by GA Bondarew called Die "Philosophie der Freiheit" von Rudolf Steiner als Grundlage der Logik des anschauenden Denkens .
Purchase book here.
The Philosophy of Freedom "by Rudolf Steiner as the basis of the logic of intuitive thinking
English translation of above link.

Purchase 1922 Hoernle translation (wait for complete download to be taken to book page, $26.56.) of the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity available at Kessinger Publishing. Then type onto computer. Digital version will be posted here as each chapter is done to help with the translation project and likely at the Rudolf Steiner Archive when done making it available to everybody.

Translation Project: Revise the original 1916 Hoernle English translation for better clarity and to make the text and style more contemporary while maintaining accuracy. This is the only English translation of The Philosophy of Freedom Rudolf Steiner personally authorized and was aware of. The other translations were done after his passing.

Research Project Suggestion: Otto Palmer looked through books and lectures by Steiner to collect his comments on The Philosophy of Freedom. This was published as Rudolf Steiner on His Book The Philosophy of Freedom and is helpful for students of the book. A start was made with this group. Volunteer researchers are needed to:

• Type the quotes found by Palmer so they can be put online with a search engine for students.
• Search the Steiner online archive to find more quotes to expand the material.
• Reorganize the quotes. (Palmer's comments may not be needed)

Sample quote:
"Freedom lives in human thinking. The will itself is not directly free; what is free is the thought that energizes will. That is why I had to lay such stress on freedom as an attribute of thought when I discussed the moral nature of the will in my Philosophy of Freedom."
RS, The Course of my Life

 I am experimenting with presenting the Philosophy of Freedom in cartoon form with Barack Obama as the guide. I believe Obama's philosophy is very close to POF so I think the cartoon would also explain Obama. This strip is the opening of chapter 13, The Value of Life.

"It is important that we at least have the good will and make the effort to advance to the kind of thinking that is free of emotion—to begin with, free of the emotions we know so well in ordinary life. If the content of The Philosophy of Freedom appeals to people because their feelings incline them to a more spiritual way of looking at things, they have not yet achieved pure thinking. Only those people who take it in because of the thoughts logical sequence and the way they support each other are relating to the book in the right way."

"When you have come so far as to be able to gradually rid your emotion-filled thinking of its subjective content so that it contains only pure concepts, then divine content, the content that comes from above, can flow in."

Community life, inner development, sexuality, and the spiritual teacher ...p.75
By Rudolf Steiner

Today all opinions pass through the internet. It is todays vehicle for communication. Each day I am on the internet listening to what people are saying. Waldorf schools are increasing coming under attack for its association with the "wacky" spiritual science of Rudolf Steiner. If you want to scare people with Steiner quotes about Lemuria, two devils, two Jesus children etc. it is easy to do. The opponents point to the religious cult of the Anthroposophical Society and the foolish faith-based belief system called anthroposophy to attack the public funding of Waldorf schools in the USA, UK, and Australia.

I advocate emphasizing that the core of anthroposophy and Waldorf is The Philosophy of Freedom which is independent of any group, dogma, or faith-based belief system. While Steiner's far out sounding clairvoyant readings are the focal point of a world wide attack on Steiner and Waldorf education the Philosophy of Freedom remains untouched by public criticism and instead finds even respect in the general public discussion.

When I warn anthroposophists of these growing attacks they are first usually surprised because they don't spend much time online so are uninformed. Then they say, "who cares". It is a smugness that implies that in the future the public will be turning back to the language of theosophy and ancient Eastern spiritual theory with its astral and etheric bodies and realize the anthroposophists were right all along.

Why would history move backward into the past? The medium of theosophy and its language was an appropriate vehicle in Germany 100 years ago. Steiner's work will be confirmed in the future, but likely using a new language appropriate for the culture. In contrast, the language of The Philosophy of Freedom is accepted today and should be for a long time.

Steiner recognized the limited life of his other books and lectures while he said the Philosophy of Freedom, which is about the fundamentals of knowing intended to make us all spiritual scientists rather than merely Steiner devotees, would endure.

Steve Sagarin of Barrington Waldorf high school in Massachusetts posted  these thoughts on his blog about understanding a term like "spiritual science".

We may swoon with delight or crinkle our noses in disgust at the term "spiritual science," but we should know its origins before we embrace or discount it.

If your daughter told you she was studying humanities in college could you imagine having the same reactions? "Geisteswissenschaft," literally, "spiritual science," refers in German universities to what we call the humanities. It's that simple.

Some claim that Husserl and Steiner, among others, use the term in a "new way," but I would argue that, if anything, they're actually reclaiming its older sense. That is, they aim to understand literature, philosophy, history--the humanities--as clearly and objectively as natural scientists aim to understand the natural world.

Whether or not they succeed, whether or not we agree with their method or findings, this was their project. Owen Barfield sometimes described his work in history and philosophy as aiming at a "science of meaning." I believe this is exactly what Steiner meant by spiritual science, and what we (used to) mean when we studied the humanities.

What are the alternatives to a science of meaning ("science" derives from Latin for "knowledge")? Accept the universe as meaningless? Teach that we each "create our own meaning"? I know it's wimpy not to accept these hard "truths," but, of course, they're not truths, they're assumptions. And I will hold them as such--possibilities not demonstrated--while I pursue the humanities.