Submitted by Tom Last on Thu, 10/08/2009 - 8:47pm.
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.
Submitted by Tom Last on Sun, 09/27/2009 - 4:17pm.
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.
Submitted by Tom Last on Sat, 09/26/2009 - 2:08pm.
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.
Submitted by Tom Last on Sun, 09/06/2009 - 8:18pm.
NeuroSky MindSet A new headset from NeuroSky ($200) gives the ability to observe brain wave activity using EEG technology to everybody. The technology is based on electroencephalography medical technology, which has been around for decades to measure neuron activity in the brain. But unlike past EEG equipment, which requires dozens of electrodes attached to the head and a sticky gel, NeuroSky measures activity through a wireless headset which uses a sensor that touches the forehead.
The headset sends a signal to your computer which shows a color bar gragh of your brain waves. It also has a dial that measures attention level and one that measures emotional calmness.
Steiner has based his theory of the modern development of thinking on the "proper" study of the Philosophy of Freedom. This proper study involves 1. attention and 2. reading comprehension. The people at NeuroSky see education as a main application for their device. They say it "can help identify when people have trouble learning a particular concept." The device will register when you don't understand what you are reading.
The main reason the Philosophy of Freedom has not had the impact Steiner intended is that it is not studied properly. The proper study of POF requires maintaining a high attention level and stopping when you don't understand something to work with it until you achieve a new insight. This neurofeedback device could train proper study habits by signaling falling attention and when the reader is passing by a concept that is not understood.
This device has the potential to train proper study habits of POF which is the critical element in Steiner's human development theories. This would be a major breakthrough and could result in people achieving the transformation of thinking that Steiner bases everything on. I have ordered one and plan to test it. The EEG identifies states of mind so I want to also investigate whether it registers any of the states described in POF.
Submitted by Tom Last on Sun, 08/09/2009 - 9:08am.
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
Submitted by John Ralph on Fri, 08/07/2009 - 2:59am.
From a lecture to the Goetheanum workmen -
"Concepts fall apart in the physical body, and yet human beings do not want to learn to think with the etheric body. They do not want to think independently. Now you see why, in the year 1893, it became necessary for me to write the book The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity. It is not the contents of this book that are so important, although obviously at that time one wished to tell the world what was said in it, but the most important thing is that independent thinking appeared in this book for the first time. No-one can possibly understand this book who does not think independently. From the beginning, page by page, a reader must become accustomed to using his etheric body if he would think these thoughts at all. Hence this book is a means of education - a very important means - and must be taken up as such.
recently I thought I read here some quotation or reference to Steiner himself commenting upon the difficulty he had being able to speak out of the consciousness soul. He was "forced" (?) to mostly speak to the intellectual soul (or some such idea). Can anyone reading this provide a quote and a reference to where he said this?
Submitted by taxmanatx on Tue, 08/04/2009 - 8:13pm.
In the movie, The Matrix, the character ‘Neo’ wakes up to a world that is much different from the one he formerly knew. Prior to his awakening the world seemed to consist of individuals going about their daily lives – working, playing, and ‘paying their taxes’ in a manner essentially identical to the world that we live in. Now, after having been ‘woken up’ by the character Morpheus, Neo sees that what he formerly thought about reality has turned out to be a complete lie – an illusion foisted upon him by an inhuman race of beings (the machines) for there own ends.
Tom Last spends last few dollars at
In and Out Burger in California
Down to his last $5 Tom Last went broke in style at a nearby In and Out Burger establishment ordering a #1 Double Double burger with fries.
Spending all his time blogging at philosophyoffreedom.com or working on projects trying to bring attention to Rudolf Steiner's path while neglecting basic needs like survival finally caught up to him.
In spite of the fact that 5 years of online fund raising netted $200 to support the website, it turns out to have not been enough. Savings now depleted and a recession drying up previous part time work opportunities along with the lack of any real employment qualifications have all come together like a perfect storm sending Tom to the street.
This means he will be posting less on the website for awhile anyway, until some food is acquired.
Anybody can fill the gap by posting their own Journals.
Lacking any employment skills and shameless Tom resorts to begging.
Submitted by Jeffrey on Mon, 08/03/2009 - 11:55pm.
"The strong cannot grieve when an action goes wrong, when the result does not accord with his intentions. But he does not blame himself. For he does not measure his way of acting by supernatural yardsticks. He knows that he has acted thus in accord with his natural impulses, and at most he can regret that these are not better. It is the same with his judgment regarding the actions of others. A moral evaluation of actions he does not grant. He is an amoralist." --Rudolf Steiner (1895)
Submitted by Tom Last on Mon, 08/03/2009 - 10:16am.
I am unable to put much time into the website now as I am working to raise money to keep this site going. Thanks to those who have helped with a donation. This pause is a good time to post your suggestions for improving the website.
Submitted by Tom Last on Sat, 08/01/2009 - 9:44pm.
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.
Submitted by Tom Last on Sat, 08/01/2009 - 2:33pm.
"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
A new headset from 
Steiner has based his theory of the modern development of thinking on the "proper" study of the Philosophy of Freedom. This proper study involves 1. attention and 2. reading comprehension. The people at NeuroSky see education as a main application for their device. They say it "can help identify when people have trouble learning a particular concept." The device will register when you don't understand what you are reading.
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 
"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."