Responding to the WC

Howdy folks, I’ve been on hiatus from my blog for a while; life has a way of filling up your time. My Defending Steiner is up for all to read, and some of the folks over at the WC (Waldorf Critics) have even been looking at it. It is a bit discouraging that they keep missing the point, but then, they don’t have a history of critical reading that is critical in anything but attitude. Someone emailed me some of the...

My Peter Staudenmaier Page

In googling around I found a site that referenced my Peter Staudenmaier page. (It’s over at http://fire.prohosting.com/anthro2/Peter_Staudenmaier.htm. There Jeff Smith takes me to task for “holding a grudge” against Peter Staudenmaier. He quotes some of my writing at length, and looking at it like that, I realized that it was a bit of a rant, and not really the best way of presenting things. So I moved it...

My Defending Rudolf Steiner site is getting notice...

A few people have actually written me about my Defending Rudolf Steiner site. Some have objections, others express appreciation. Googling around I found a few people linking to it. One amusing site is Jeff Smith’s ramblings. Jeff seems to be thinking out loud as he read through the site. I’m not sure that he got all my points (he even admits to have not read much of it) but also does not appear to have any...

About Sub-Races

The concept of Sub Races is related to Root Races, in that Sub Races are a subdivision of Root Races. In href=”http://www.theosophical.org/theosophy/faqs/index.html”>Theosophy there are seven Sub Races for each Root Race. Steiner maintained the structure, but renamed the Root Races “Epochs” and the Sub-Races “Cultural Epochs” and specifically de-emphasized the racial aspects. In 1908...

More on Root Races

In my article on Root Races I wrote that Blavatsky originated the term. Someone asked me if it was not true that Alfred Percy Sinnett first published the term in his book “Esoteric Buddhism” (1883). I looked into it a bit, and found the following. The idea and structure of root races, but not the term itself, was present in Blavatsky’s 1877 book “Isis Unveiled”. Sinnett’s “Esoteric...

My article What is a Root Race?

The whole question of “Root Races” is an interesting one. In our age, which is so finely attuned to hints of racism (and rightly so) the name alone can immediately suggest racism. This is complicated by the fact that a number of genuine racists, including neo-Nazis proud of the label, employ the term and pervert the underlying concepts. In the article I look at the origin of the term and its meaning, both in...

About Rudolf Steiner and Theodor Reuss

On occasion you will read about how Rudolf Steiner was a member of the OTO and practiced sexual magic. Such accusations were already being bandied about in his lifetime, and to anyone who knew him or his work they were and remain ridiculous. No hint of such rumors ever emerged from people close to Steiner. Rather it was people who simply wished to discredit him who slung such accusations around. If anyone believed such...

Sitemap of Defending Steiner

I was looking at my Defending Steiner site recently when I realize that there was no easy way to get an overview of the whole thing. I know what it looks like because I built it. But if you landed on the main page you would not easily see at a glance everything that is there. So I decide what it really needed was a Site Map. So that is the latest thing I have added. Defending Steiner Home Page Rudolf Steiner – Links to...

Rudolf Steiner and Heinrich von Treitschke

I was surprised to read once that Steiner was an admirer of Heinrich von Treitschke. I wondered what evidence, biographical or anecdotal, existed to support such a conclusion. The claim was made by Peter Staudenmaier so I was not at all surprised to find that, once again, Staudenmaier had misrepresented the situation. I wrote an entire article on the subject. It starts: Rudolf Steiner did not admire Treitschke. Far from it,...

Anthroposophically Extended Medicine

In another section of my site Defending Steiner I consider the questions of whether Rudolf Steiner’s anthroposophical approach to medicine, called “Anthroposophically Extended Medicine” rejects conventional scientific medicine. I wrote: Rudolf Steiner’s approach to medicine is specifically called anthroposophically extended medicine because it extends conventional medicine. The very first requirement...

Some thoughts about how to define the word “...

An interesting diversion along the way in making the site were some thoughts about how to define the word “anthroposophist”. It might seem odd, but in such intellectual disputes as I have had with critics of anthroposophy (among others, Peter Staudenmaier) hair-splitting definitions has been an issue. Peter likes to use words loosely, even as he pretends to use them precisely. So he will call Rudolf Hess an...

Rudolf Steiner’s nationalism.

I’ve been working on Defending Steiner for about the last year. I haven’t been able to devote as much time to it as I would like, but progress was continual. In fact, I have a number of further articles in various stages of preparation. But at this point I judged it sufficiently far along to post online. I got several people to look at it first and their comments were helpful. Help was especially useful in my...