Philosophy of Freedom Study Course

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FREE ONLINE STUDY COURSE
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The Philosophy of Freedom is the core work of philosopher and scientist of the mind Rudolf Steiner. He asserts a humanist world-view that human morality, like human knowledge, is conditional upon human nature. It empowers one's life through deepening scientific inquiry and living according to one's highest ideals.

THREE YEARS IN THE MAKING Study Course includes: 40 videos, 55 observation exercises, 380 educational comic strips, and more. At the end of the course you have the option of taking the Philosophy of Freedom Examination consisting of 250 quiz questions and receiving a certificate. The course is in flash.

Who is this online study course for? Success in any Steiner related profession or life in general relies upon free thinking. Free thinking is experienced in the bright clarity of intuitive insight. Success also depends upon free deeds experienced in empowered ethical action. Within The Philosophy of Freedom are the fundamental principles of free thinking and action, essential study for future Waldorf teachers, biodynamic farmers, anthroposophical physicians, curative teachers, and eurythmists. This course is also for Waldorf parents, students, and progressives curious about Steiner's empowered ethical individualism. This course is for anyone who wants to live life to its fullest potential. The Philosophy of Freedom is difficult to study, but the variety of material included in the course makes it suitable for a wide range of ages and experience.

Questions: A question box within the course itself will allow you to submit questions.

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COURSE OBJECTIVE

The objectives of the Philosophy Of Freedom Study Course is given in the opening of The Philosophy of Freedom. In Chapter 1, The Goal of Knowledge, Rudolf Steiner gives the two necessary practices for his path to freedom: orientate your life in the direction of the principles within The Philosophy of Freedom and practice pure conceptual thinking:

"I am under no illusion as to the characteristic of my time. I know how much automatism, devoid of individuality, prevails. But I am also just as aware that many of my contemporaries seek to orient their lives in the direction that I have suggested here. I would like to dedicate this book to them. It is not supposed to lead to the “only possible” path to truth but to describe the path taken by one for whom truth is central.”

“This text leads first through abstract regions where thought must draw sharp outlines if it is to reach clearly defined positions. But the reader is also led from arid concepts into concrete life. I am certainly of the opinion that one must also lift oneself into the realm of concepts if one is to experience every aspect of existence. Someone who knows only how to enjoy use of the senses does not really know the sweetest part of life. Oriental sages have their students first spend years in renunciation and asceticism before they share with them what they know. The West no longer requires pious exercises or asceticism to attain knowledge, but it does demand the willingness to withdraw oneself awhile from the immediate impressions of life and enter the world of pure thought.”

The first objective of the study course is learning the principles of freedom given in Steiner's freedom philosophy. Obviously, you cannot apply these principles to your life without knowing them. The other course objective is preparation for deeper study of The Philosophy of Freedom. Just by reading the text one enters the world of pure thought and practices conceptual thinking, but to further deepen reading experiences it is always the case that the task consists of improving basic reading comprehension of the text. George O'Neil describes deeper study of the Philosophy of Freedom in this way,

"To achieve this living in thought we must first become master in the highest degree of content, utterly eliminating the arbitrariness of personal preference and emphasis. Says Goethe: To have the whole thing in your heart, you must have conned its every part. To which Rudolf Steiner has added: First read for substance, then read again for form.

In contemplating the totality of a living thought-organism, correspondences and symmetries previously unseen, begin to emerge, each illuminating the other. Meanings come forth, never before expected, revealing interdependence and mutual support. The whole is experienced as weaving interplay of single thoughts, each reflecting the whole as experiencable from its single aspects."

Free Thinking
Part I of the Philosophy of Freedom begins with the principles of individuality and freedom and then becomes an in-depth study of the principles of cognition with chapters on thinking, perception, conception, mental picturing, and cognition. While Part I can be experienced as dry and abstract, with proper study it becomes the “sweetest part of life” if one is experiencing the flash of intuitive insight, or as Rudolf Steiner said, rather than reading strings of words the reading experience is more like “the striking of steel on flint”. The thought-structure of the book is intended to produce this result though it needs to be read with the inquisitive questioning and effort that brings “inner shocks, tensions and resolutions”.

Free Action
Part II covers the principles of living life as an empowered ethical individualist, imaginatively expressing freedom in action.

FREE ONLINE STUDY COURSE
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In the first decade of the 20th century, August Ewerbeck got word that there were intimate circles in which Rudolf Steiner gave special esoteric training to those admitted to them. So he asked his teacher whether he too might be allowed to attend, and received the astonishing reply: “You don’t need to! You have understood my Philosophy of Freedom!”

Asked which of his books he would most want to see rescued if catastrophe should come upon the world, Rudolf Steiner replied without hesitation: The Philosophy of Freedom.

In a conversation with Rudolf Steiner in 1922 Walter Johannes Stein asked,
“What will remain of your work in thousands of years?
Rudolf Steiner replied: “Nothing but the Philosophy of Freedom,” and then he added: “But everything is contained in it. If someone realizes the act of freedom described there, he finds the whole content of Anthroposophy”.

A question box within the course itself will submit your study questions to this website.

Study Course Question Box

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