Date

Friday, November 16, 2018

Location

Overton

Event Description

Rudolf Steiner was at the cutting edge of social justice issues of his day, including sexism, racism, and poverty. In his book, The Philosophy of Freedom, he asks the question: since each human being is born into a particular gender, family, culture, and race, each of which has shared characteristics of others within the respective group, is it possible for an individual to truly be free? His answer is that “the generic features of the human race, when rightly understood, do not restrict [a human]’s freedom, and should not artificially be made to do so.” The fact that society can “artificially” restrict an individual’s ability to find inner freedom was, to Steiner, something worth fighting against. Although Steiner's ideas were radically progressive during his lifetime, since his death in 1925 a great deal has happened globally to further the consciousness of the effects of patriarchy, ethnocentrism, and colonialism on modern culture. Through presentation and interactive discussion, we will re-examine some of Steiner's work from the perspective of modern social justice consciousness and explore how Steiner's insights, brought to the present in a living way, can help guide the biodynamic movement as we work to advance social justice into the future.

Presenter(s)

Session

Workshop Session C