Published on www.philosophyoffreedom.com (http://www.philosophyoffreedom.com)

What is the Path of The Philosophy of Freedom?

By Tom Last
Created 11/21/2007 - 10:40am


What is the path in The Philosophy of Freedom and how do you walk it?


This review of The Philosophy of Freedom below mentions the free spiritual activity described within the book  as the "appropriate and available cognitive path for human beings today". It is a step by step path "leading from ordinary thinking to the level of pure spiritual activity-intuitive thinking".

Of all his books, Rudolf Steiner himself believed this work would have the longest life. Written just one hundred years ago, as a phenomenological account of "results of observing the human soul according to the methods of natural science," this seminal work asserts that free spiritual activity-understood as the human ability to think intuitively, independent of physical nature-is the appropriate and available cognitive path for human beings today.

Readers will find no abstract philosophy here, but rather a step-by-step account of how a person may come to experience living, intuitive thinking: "the conscious experience of a purely spiritual content."

Over the last century, many have sought to discover the "new thinking" that could help us understand the various spiritual, ecological, social, political, and philosophical issues facing us, but only Rudolf Steiner laid down a path leading from ordinary thinking to the level of pure spiritual activity-intuitive thinking-where we become co-creators and co-redeemers of the world.


I did an internet search of Rudolf Steiner and cognition and what I found everywhere was that Rudolf Steiner's path of cognition was Knowledge of Higher Worlds. Here is an example where POF isn't even mentioned.

Anthroposophy is an answer to the human need to develop a relationship to the world not perceptible with human senses. Many people nowadays try to understand human spirituality and its connection with the cosmos. Anthroposophy, founded by Rudolf Steiner (1861 – 1925), shows them a way how one can broaden his/her abilities of perception and cognition. This process is described by Steiner in his book "Knowledge of the Higher Worlds", "Theosophy" and  "Occult Science".


This lead to asking the question as to why The Philosophy of Freedom has been ignored as a path while Knowledge of Higher Worlds gets so much attention. A simple answer is that Knowledge has a series of clearly explained exercises that can be taken up. What is the path of POF that can be taken up?

POF also has a series of exercises in the form of introspective observations. Within the philosophic discussions of various philosophers and difficult reading these step by step observations are easily missed. So I have been thinking as part of a new Philosophy of Freedom study course these observations could be highlighted to assist the reader to recognize and practice these observations. This would result in a step by step path of self-awareness, "Know Thyself".

The development of a new study course will be done on an on site WIKI to encourage a collaborative effort. Course features that come to mind are the:
(1) step by step series of self observations
(2) some explanation as to how this relates to free spiritual activity
(3) a contemporary biography as an example of the topic

 

I was not setting forth a doctrine, but simply recording inner experiences through which I had actually passed. And I reported them just as I experienced them.” -RS

 

 


Source URL:
http://www.philosophyoffreedom.com/node/2403