Knowra Rudolf Steiner Rudolf Steiner Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925) was an Austrian philosopher and spiritual teacher who founded anthroposophy and inspired Waldorf education, biodynamic agriculture, and anthroposophical medicine.
Marie Steiner-von Sivers : A Russian-born actress and anthroposophist who collaborated with Rudolf Steiner and led the Anthroposophical Society after his death. She worked closely with Steiner on speech, theatre, and the organization of anthroposophy.
Anthroposophy : A spiritual movement founded by Rudolf Steiner that combines claims of spiritual knowledge with educational, artistic, and practical work. This is the movement Steiner founded and the framework connecting his varied initiatives.
Waldorf education : An educational approach originating in the school Rudolf Steiner helped establish in Stuttgart in 1919. Steiner shaped its curriculum around developmental stages, arts, practical work, and a spiritual view of childhood.
Scientific naturalism : The view that reality is exhausted by nature and that scientific methods are the best means of explaining it. Steiner claimed that disciplined spiritual cognition could disclose realities beyond naturalistic science.
Édouard Schuré : A French writer whose book on great initiates influenced esoteric currents around the turn of the twentieth century. Steiner’s early association with Schuré helped connect his thought to European esotericism.
Theosophy : A modern esoteric movement that seeks spiritual knowledge through comparative religion, philosophy, and claims of hidden wisdom. Steiner led the German Theosophical Society before breaking with it to establish anthroposophy.
Biodynamic agriculture : A farming system that treats a farm as an integrated organism and uses preparations associated with Rudolf Steiner. Steiner’s 1924 agricultural lectures supplied its founding principles and preparations.
Empiricism : The philosophical view that knowledge is grounded primarily in experience, especially sensory observation. Steiner argued that knowledge could extend beyond sensory experience through trained inner observation.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : A German writer and naturalist whose literary and scientific work shaped European Romanticism. Steiner edited Goethe’s scientific writings and treated Goethean observation as a model for knowing nature.
German Idealism : A philosophical movement associated with thinkers such as Kant, Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel. Steiner’s early philosophy developed in conversation with idealist accounts of knowledge and freedom.
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