The Karma of Materialism

The Culture of Materialism "While natural science has devised and continues to devise ever more elaborate and more precise tools for investigation, it has left unexamined and unimproved the first and most essential, the most ubiquitously applied, of all its tools. It has never tried to examine the nature of thinking itself; the point at which unconscious process blossoms into, or rather 'sets' as, conscious thought." Owen Barfield, From the Foreword In this volume Steiner concerns himself with the effects that have stemmed from the failure of scientists to examine thinking at the time of the scientific revolution and after. The result of this failure is materialism in human culture which in turn generates a karma: the karma of materialism. During the last two decades of the nineteenth century the Austrian-born Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) became a respected and well-published scientific, literary, and philosophical scholar, particularly known for his work on Goethe's scientific writings. After the turn of the century he began to develop his earlier philosophical principles into an approach to methodical research of psychological and spiritual phenomena. His multi-faceted genius has led to innovative and holistic approaches in medicine, science, education (Waldorf schools), special education, philosophy, religion, economics, agriculture, (Bio-Dynamic method), architecture, drama, the new art of eurythmy, and other fields. In 1924 he founded the General Anthroposophical Society, which today has branches throughout the world. ISBN: 0-88010-129-6 paper 0-88010-130-X cloth 0-85440-760-X paper Rudolf Steiner Press 0-85440-770-7 cloth Rudolf Steiner Press