Artist : Zan Newstrom
Something New Under the Sun
From Threefold Social IDEA to Threefold Social ORDER
Towards Social Renewal, published in 1919, was Rudolf Steiner's first work on the threefold social idea, and remains a core text. It explores - painstakingly - the history of Europe in the centuries preceding the first World War, the forms that had evolved in the realms of economic, legal-political and cultural life, and the way these realms were understood by those with the power to direct their course. Insight in these circles, he observes, was in no way able to rise to an overview of the world they essentially controlled ; and thus unable to promote health in the three realms of life, nor foresee and counteract developing dangers. These deficits had come to frightening yet inevitable fruition in the disastrous War, at that point just months in the past.
In its scope and shocking violence, "The Great War" took Europe nearly completely by surprise, with in just four short years 45 million military and civilian casualties, including over 20 million dead. Nothing on this scale had ever happened ; and the real causes, Rudolf Steiner observed, remained completely unseen and undealt with.
In point of fact they were never rightly dealt with - at least not by those who might have made a difference. For the states that had fought against Germany, it became enough to condemn it as a villain and wrongdoer, and in essence, make it pay. For Germany, any chance to reflect or change course was lost in reaction to this "sole aggressor" stigma, and the punishments meted out for it. As a result the same rigid thinking and social structures, the same raw feelings and mistrust were left to stew and explode in a yet greater war - this time with as many as 85 million in deaths alone, including war related disease and famine ; and this time with civilian deaths in the majority. Rudolf Steiner foresaw this new war immediately, presenting with the threefold idea both a warning and an opportunity.
The threefold social idea should be understood as a distillation of insights gained from history : a body of observations and concepts gained from the facts and events themselves, spanning centuries of time. As such, it may be considered a contribution to science in the field of human social life. Neither opinion nor theory, it should be tested by any thinking person of good will, on the one hand for its inner logical cohesion and consistency ; and on the other, its relevance to real world experience.
Threefold Social Idea versus Threefold Social Order
The threefold idea, as we saw previously in this series, discerns three archetypal realms of human social activity - economic, rights-political and spiritual-cultural - including insights into
This threefold idea was introduced publicly with accompanying practical proposals at a time of crisis, under intense pressure of time and events. The course of this campaign, at first highly promising, was soon snared in controversy, and in the end it failed. This first attempt in 1919 was a first and germinal attempt to realize the threefold social idea as a hoped for threefold social order in the real world.
In a turbulent post World War I world, the threefold idea was mistaken for a variety of other things by a variety of groups and people, rejected and even reviled on a variety of mistaken grounds. This can be seen as a consequence of a horrific war, of minds shocked and traumatized, distracted and fearful of the unknown. But while true and deserving of empathy, this also had deeper roots.
The Boundaries of Natural Science
From the mid-1400s on in Europe, a transition had occurred in human thinking, from an understanding of the world based primarily in religious faith, to one based in observations of its outer and physical aspects, and in concepts derived from them. By the time of World War I among educated people, this natural scientific view of the world - and of the human being - had become the prevailing one ; but it was not monolithic.
Already in the mid-19th century, some leading scientists felt compelled to admit that, although there might and even must be additional knowledge possible, knowledge to be gained from the five senses had limits, beyond which it could not reach. Rudolf Steiner underlined this emphatically, adding that if it hoped to get past this barrier, science must find new methods.
Science in Steiner's time had for the most part churned in its practices, and had not gotten further. But little noticed, it also took a byway. There arose among viewpoints that of theoretical materialism : the doctrine that the barrier imposed on knowledge by the five senses was final ; and that no further knowledge was possible. Science rolled quietly forward on this track ; and among ordinary people as well, assumptions and mindsets had grown gradually but decidedly more materialistic.
Yet as necessary as natural science is to help us orient ourselves in the world, Steiner pointed out, as many benefits as it contributes to our lives, unquestioned and unquestioning materialism also bears risks.
The Legacy of Materialism
Attending as it does only to aspects of reality perceptible to the senses (and technical instruments that extend them), to phenomena that can be weighed, measured and analyzed accordingly, natural science excludes any other, possibly even crucial characteristics reality may have ; characteristics such as those identified previously as
Life : that which differentiates any living plant, animal or human being from a non-living one. Per Steiner, in living organisms these forces are a non-physical bridge between the spiritual and physical worlds ; a factor not perceptible to the senses, but which make possible the growth and reproduction of all living things, and at a higher level, forms a basis for human thinking and memory.
Soul : that element, also non-physical, which in animals and human beings lends them the capacity for sentience, and the capacity to respond to the world on the basis of inner experience.
Spirit : In the human being alone, the factor of self consciousness, which permits self reflection, and in turn the possibility to more deeply recognize the world and beings around us. This capacity opens the way to gradual overview and mastery of our own thoughts, feelings and actions, to self-correction where needed and to moral imagination in regard to intended future actions. Per Rudolf Steiner, these things are also prerequisites for perception of supersensible worlds and beings - capacities he asserted are potential in every human being.
Restrained by the limits of its methodology (the senses, plus thinking), natural science finds no means to explore these additional phenomena, and so scarcely thinks to consider them. A first consequence is its regular failure to anticipate or notice harm it may cause in these areas. We need only consider the damage we cause in the natural world with our meticulously scientific technologies, based on our meticulously scientific approach, on an almost continuous basis ; or the sacrifice extracted in terms of human dignity, health and well being by our machinelike, largely amoral, yet still scientifically ordered world economic system.
Most harmful of all for the individual human being, Steiner observed, were the effects of materialism on our most precious human capacity - our ability to think.
Accustomed by science to ignore or even reject phenomena of life, soul and spirit, the human being also easily ignored them in him or herself. The risk was that in rejecting consideration of these supposed "non-phenomena", capacities were also weakened to form thoughts and mental pictures in a truly robust and independent way, to establish relationship with inner and outer experiences, or with other human beings ; and with these subtle diminishings, capacities for independent will and action. Such effects, though silent, Steiner observed, were as destructive to mental and emotional health in modern persons as the rigid social forms and thinking had been, that had led to the catastrophic war. There thus arose the question : in a world flying basically blind, how to address the perhaps even greater problem of so many individuals flying blind ?
Steiner's "spiritual scientific" methods opened doors not just to deeper understanding of man and world, but to practical work in various fields. Contributions to agriculture, medicine, education (the Waldorf School movement), to the arts of painting, music, movement ("eurythmy") and more, to spiritual and religious life and to bold new, remarkably "human friendly" innovations in the field of architecture became possible, healing and restoring much that materialism, in the end, could only damage or neglect. From the stalemate of the threefolding movement in 1919 til the end of his life, Rudolf Steiner turned his full attention to these initiatives, and what might in very real ways be called the redemption of the human individual.
These and other "anthroposophical" initiatives bear fruit to this day, but the retarding effects of materialism also continue, such that these works too are undermined, and increasingly, even attacked. Particularly chaotic and suffocating are the effects when the three spheres of life impinge and trespass on one another, denying each other their needs, and disrupting each other's functioning. Often praised, almost always appreciated and virtually never a source of empirical harm, these initiatives survive tenuously, a kind social endangered species.
The threefold idea itself remains a relatively unexplored and unrealized branch of Steiner's spiritual scientific work - and as noted, a neglected set of scientific findings. Does it still have a part to play ? If so, what - and how ?
From Threefold Social IDEA to Threefold Social ORDER
Points to Ponder
For those around Rudolf Steiner, the failure of the 1919 campaign was painful - and given events in coming decades, a harbinger of still greater sorrows. Later students of Steiner's work, for their part, have sometimes found the threefold idea frustrating - a puzzle. Attempts have been made at "threefolding" in various places, after all, in schools, businesses, farming and medical initiatives - but why hasn't a threefold social order happened in the world, at least somewhere ?
We've built up a picture of the threefold social idea - but what is the threefold social order, exactly ? What would such a thing look like ?
In a previous article I suggested the definition that
"A healthy threefold social order will consist in those conditions, measures and relationships in society, whatever they may be, that permit optimal expression to human gifts and abilities, best satisfy essential physical needs of human life and protect the optimal safety and dignity of all."
A loose, descriptive, phenomenological definition like this may be the most helpful approach, as it leaves room for a threefold order to be a composite, built up in parts in different places by different people - working together as possible, yet autonomously as insight and opportunitities permit. Without ignoring history, it may offer enough of a reprieve from past disappointments for a fresh start, and new perspectives based on current circumstances. Not least, it promotes characterization of situations, beyond mere judgments, and orients to goals and possibilities, beyond mere problems and dangers.
But complete or incremental, what factors would be essential, towards building a threefold social order ?
Rudolf Steiner made a number of statements - some repeatedly :
Observation of life, our own and of others, shows the power of our thoughts about facts and situations - whether accurate or mistaken - to trigger emotions ; and of our emotions to in turn trigger action. Rudolf Steiner was clear that once people truly understood the threefold idea, they'd begin to apply it spontaneously, starting with their smallest daily actions and decisions.
Rudolf Steiner said of spiritual science generally that it should not be taken on authority, but tested closely for logic, and relevance to the actual conditions of life. Can our understanding of the threefold idea meet these kinds of tests ? Do we grasp what resonates emotionally with us, enough to be able to put it in our own words coherently ? To defend it against resistance and misunderstanding, when these inevitably come ? In the pitched, uncertain struggle between a better world and a much, much worse one, we ourselves are the decisive factor.
From Threefold Social IDEA to Threefold Social ORDER
Towards Social Renewal, published in 1919, was Rudolf Steiner's first work on the threefold social idea, and remains a core text. It explores - painstakingly - the history of Europe in the centuries preceding the first World War, the forms that had evolved in the realms of economic, legal-political and cultural life, and the way these realms were understood by those with the power to direct their course. Insight in these circles, he observes, was in no way able to rise to an overview of the world they essentially controlled ; and thus unable to promote health in the three realms of life, nor foresee and counteract developing dangers. These deficits had come to frightening yet inevitable fruition in the disastrous War, at that point just months in the past.
In its scope and shocking violence, "The Great War" took Europe nearly completely by surprise, with in just four short years 45 million military and civilian casualties, including over 20 million dead. Nothing on this scale had ever happened ; and the real causes, Rudolf Steiner observed, remained completely unseen and undealt with.
In point of fact they were never rightly dealt with - at least not by those who might have made a difference. For the states that had fought against Germany, it became enough to condemn it as a villain and wrongdoer, and in essence, make it pay. For Germany, any chance to reflect or change course was lost in reaction to this "sole aggressor" stigma, and the punishments meted out for it. As a result the same rigid thinking and social structures, the same raw feelings and mistrust were left to stew and explode in a yet greater war - this time with as many as 85 million in deaths alone, including war related disease and famine ; and this time with civilian deaths in the majority. Rudolf Steiner foresaw this new war immediately, presenting with the threefold idea both a warning and an opportunity.
The threefold social idea should be understood as a distillation of insights gained from history : a body of observations and concepts gained from the facts and events themselves, spanning centuries of time. As such, it may be considered a contribution to science in the field of human social life. Neither opinion nor theory, it should be tested by any thinking person of good will, on the one hand for its inner logical cohesion and consistency ; and on the other, its relevance to real world experience.
Threefold Social Idea versus Threefold Social Order
The threefold idea, as we saw previously in this series, discerns three archetypal realms of human social activity - economic, rights-political and spiritual-cultural - including insights into
- their respective fields of activity in society
- their respective contributions to it
- their differing needs, in order to function and thrive
- factors that characteristically undermine their functions and thriving, and
- the conviction that more conscious understanding of these needs and factors can facilitate a more healthy working with them, whereby
- their more healthy function and thriving can become a reality.
This threefold idea was introduced publicly with accompanying practical proposals at a time of crisis, under intense pressure of time and events. The course of this campaign, at first highly promising, was soon snared in controversy, and in the end it failed. This first attempt in 1919 was a first and germinal attempt to realize the threefold social idea as a hoped for threefold social order in the real world.
In a turbulent post World War I world, the threefold idea was mistaken for a variety of other things by a variety of groups and people, rejected and even reviled on a variety of mistaken grounds. This can be seen as a consequence of a horrific war, of minds shocked and traumatized, distracted and fearful of the unknown. But while true and deserving of empathy, this also had deeper roots.
The Boundaries of Natural Science
From the mid-1400s on in Europe, a transition had occurred in human thinking, from an understanding of the world based primarily in religious faith, to one based in observations of its outer and physical aspects, and in concepts derived from them. By the time of World War I among educated people, this natural scientific view of the world - and of the human being - had become the prevailing one ; but it was not monolithic.
Already in the mid-19th century, some leading scientists felt compelled to admit that, although there might and even must be additional knowledge possible, knowledge to be gained from the five senses had limits, beyond which it could not reach. Rudolf Steiner underlined this emphatically, adding that if it hoped to get past this barrier, science must find new methods.
Science in Steiner's time had for the most part churned in its practices, and had not gotten further. But little noticed, it also took a byway. There arose among viewpoints that of theoretical materialism : the doctrine that the barrier imposed on knowledge by the five senses was final ; and that no further knowledge was possible. Science rolled quietly forward on this track ; and among ordinary people as well, assumptions and mindsets had grown gradually but decidedly more materialistic.
Yet as necessary as natural science is to help us orient ourselves in the world, Steiner pointed out, as many benefits as it contributes to our lives, unquestioned and unquestioning materialism also bears risks.
The Legacy of Materialism
Attending as it does only to aspects of reality perceptible to the senses (and technical instruments that extend them), to phenomena that can be weighed, measured and analyzed accordingly, natural science excludes any other, possibly even crucial characteristics reality may have ; characteristics such as those identified previously as
Life : that which differentiates any living plant, animal or human being from a non-living one. Per Steiner, in living organisms these forces are a non-physical bridge between the spiritual and physical worlds ; a factor not perceptible to the senses, but which make possible the growth and reproduction of all living things, and at a higher level, forms a basis for human thinking and memory.
Soul : that element, also non-physical, which in animals and human beings lends them the capacity for sentience, and the capacity to respond to the world on the basis of inner experience.
Spirit : In the human being alone, the factor of self consciousness, which permits self reflection, and in turn the possibility to more deeply recognize the world and beings around us. This capacity opens the way to gradual overview and mastery of our own thoughts, feelings and actions, to self-correction where needed and to moral imagination in regard to intended future actions. Per Rudolf Steiner, these things are also prerequisites for perception of supersensible worlds and beings - capacities he asserted are potential in every human being.
Restrained by the limits of its methodology (the senses, plus thinking), natural science finds no means to explore these additional phenomena, and so scarcely thinks to consider them. A first consequence is its regular failure to anticipate or notice harm it may cause in these areas. We need only consider the damage we cause in the natural world with our meticulously scientific technologies, based on our meticulously scientific approach, on an almost continuous basis ; or the sacrifice extracted in terms of human dignity, health and well being by our machinelike, largely amoral, yet still scientifically ordered world economic system.
Most harmful of all for the individual human being, Steiner observed, were the effects of materialism on our most precious human capacity - our ability to think.
Accustomed by science to ignore or even reject phenomena of life, soul and spirit, the human being also easily ignored them in him or herself. The risk was that in rejecting consideration of these supposed "non-phenomena", capacities were also weakened to form thoughts and mental pictures in a truly robust and independent way, to establish relationship with inner and outer experiences, or with other human beings ; and with these subtle diminishings, capacities for independent will and action. Such effects, though silent, Steiner observed, were as destructive to mental and emotional health in modern persons as the rigid social forms and thinking had been, that had led to the catastrophic war. There thus arose the question : in a world flying basically blind, how to address the perhaps even greater problem of so many individuals flying blind ?
Steiner's "spiritual scientific" methods opened doors not just to deeper understanding of man and world, but to practical work in various fields. Contributions to agriculture, medicine, education (the Waldorf School movement), to the arts of painting, music, movement ("eurythmy") and more, to spiritual and religious life and to bold new, remarkably "human friendly" innovations in the field of architecture became possible, healing and restoring much that materialism, in the end, could only damage or neglect. From the stalemate of the threefolding movement in 1919 til the end of his life, Rudolf Steiner turned his full attention to these initiatives, and what might in very real ways be called the redemption of the human individual.
These and other "anthroposophical" initiatives bear fruit to this day, but the retarding effects of materialism also continue, such that these works too are undermined, and increasingly, even attacked. Particularly chaotic and suffocating are the effects when the three spheres of life impinge and trespass on one another, denying each other their needs, and disrupting each other's functioning. Often praised, almost always appreciated and virtually never a source of empirical harm, these initiatives survive tenuously, a kind social endangered species.
The threefold idea itself remains a relatively unexplored and unrealized branch of Steiner's spiritual scientific work - and as noted, a neglected set of scientific findings. Does it still have a part to play ? If so, what - and how ?
From Threefold Social IDEA to Threefold Social ORDER
Points to Ponder
For those around Rudolf Steiner, the failure of the 1919 campaign was painful - and given events in coming decades, a harbinger of still greater sorrows. Later students of Steiner's work, for their part, have sometimes found the threefold idea frustrating - a puzzle. Attempts have been made at "threefolding" in various places, after all, in schools, businesses, farming and medical initiatives - but why hasn't a threefold social order happened in the world, at least somewhere ?
We've built up a picture of the threefold social idea - but what is the threefold social order, exactly ? What would such a thing look like ?
In a previous article I suggested the definition that
"A healthy threefold social order will consist in those conditions, measures and relationships in society, whatever they may be, that permit optimal expression to human gifts and abilities, best satisfy essential physical needs of human life and protect the optimal safety and dignity of all."
A loose, descriptive, phenomenological definition like this may be the most helpful approach, as it leaves room for a threefold order to be a composite, built up in parts in different places by different people - working together as possible, yet autonomously as insight and opportunitities permit. Without ignoring history, it may offer enough of a reprieve from past disappointments for a fresh start, and new perspectives based on current circumstances. Not least, it promotes characterization of situations, beyond mere judgments, and orients to goals and possibilities, beyond mere problems and dangers.
But complete or incremental, what factors would be essential, towards building a threefold social order ?
Rudolf Steiner made a number of statements - some repeatedly :
- As any set of scientific principles, the threefold idea must be understood to be of use. Steiner's own books and lectures are of a caliber to withstand academic scrutiny, and in the right hands, to be taught at university level. He was also clear that as basic principles at work in their world, the threefold nature of society should be introduced to children as well, in ways appropriate to their age. At these levels - and for the vast remainder of society too - the threefold idea stands in need of representatives : teachers, educators, explainers able to make it transparent to any thinking person of goodwill, at any level of society. To work this way is a true vocation, a matter of what might be called social artistry. Rudolf Steiner had this ability to a high degree. More resources on the threefold idea can be found here.
- Understanding of this idea must be clear, precise and accurate. While enthusiasm was high in the most varied audiences for Steiner's lectures, there were of yet few written materials to reinforce them, and the time window for action was short. As a result the content was not well enough grasped that listeners could reliably retain or share it - nor when resistence arose, to competently defend it. As a result, mistakes and misunderstandings occurred even among supporters of the movement that, unfortunately, contributed to its failure.
No matter the kind or size initiative, future workers in threefolding too will need firm, internalized understanding of its principles - enough to be able to act independently, discern patterns at work, respond appropriately essentially in any situation they find themselves in.
- Perhaps most of all, Steiner emphasized that understanding of the threefold idea must become widespread ; and that a core reason for the failure of the 1919 movement was that simply not enough people understood it. This was most directly clear when political and legal action was needed - a framework in law to protect needed rights within a threefold order. At key moments these efforts simply lacked the needed number of informed, committed proponents, prepared to insist on and carry them.
- Steiner was also emphatic that as insight into the core principles at work in human social life, the threefold idea has intrinsic capacity to inspire social action.
Observation of life, our own and of others, shows the power of our thoughts about facts and situations - whether accurate or mistaken - to trigger emotions ; and of our emotions to in turn trigger action. Rudolf Steiner was clear that once people truly understood the threefold idea, they'd begin to apply it spontaneously, starting with their smallest daily actions and decisions.
Rudolf Steiner said of spiritual science generally that it should not be taken on authority, but tested closely for logic, and relevance to the actual conditions of life. Can our understanding of the threefold idea meet these kinds of tests ? Do we grasp what resonates emotionally with us, enough to be able to put it in our own words coherently ? To defend it against resistance and misunderstanding, when these inevitably come ? In the pitched, uncertain struggle between a better world and a much, much worse one, we ourselves are the decisive factor.
Please Pardon Our CONSTRUCTION SITE !
I'm in the homestretch of this "Something New Under the Sun" article series, with just this final article to complete. Please hold your thoughts - or share them with me in the form below - and know that it won't be long now !
I'm in the homestretch of this "Something New Under the Sun" article series, with just this final article to complete. Please hold your thoughts - or share them with me in the form below - and know that it won't be long now !
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