Twelve lectures, held in Dornach and Bern from November 29 to December 21, 1918 (CW 186)
The lecture course in this volume was given by Rudolf Steiner in Dornach, Switzerland, in November and December of 1918, shortly after the armistice that brought the First World War to a close. Throughout the war, those living in Dornach could hear the thunderous drumfire on the Western front in neighboring Alsace, as they worked to build a house of peace, the First Goetheanum, on the Dornach hill. Rudolf Steiner often remarked how extraordinary it was that such a group of people--German, French, English, American, Russian--came together in the midst of the chaos and destruction, setting aside the fact that their nations were at war, in order to build something of spiritual significance for all humanity.
In these lectures, published here in their complete form as a Collected Works volume for the first time in English, Rudolf Steiner seeks to awaken his listeners to the need for new social ideas, new social forms, in the wake of the catastrophe of World War I. This requires us to become increasingly conscious of the forces and dynamics at work in social life. In this connection, an essential aspect of social life described in these lectures, particularly in lecture four, has to do with "social" and "antisocial" forces. Antisocial forces develop through our waking consciousness, while social forces arise through our sleeping consciousness. We are constantly oscillating between these two polarities, and yet both forces belong to human nature and must be grasped in their essence for a truly healthy social life to emerge.
In a deeper sense, the answer to the challenge of our times can be found in the development of what Rudolf Steiner calls "the threefold social organism," rooted in the ideals of Freedom, Equality, and Brotherhood. The aim is not to create a social program, but rather to recognize the reality that our social life is threefold. Just as illness processes arise when the three systems (nervous, rhythmic, and metabolic) of our bodily organism are out of balance, so too do illness processes arise in the social organism when it falls out of balance. It is not really a matter of whether we like or don't like, whether we want or don't want social threefolding. As Steiner puts it, whether through human reason or through catastrophes and revolutions, "this threefolding must come" (page 85).
These lectures are an enduring testament to Rudolf Steiner's profound and far-reaching insights into social questions. They speak to us today with the same urgency and immediacy as when they were first given, despite or perhaps because we now stand one hundred years on in the stream of time. Now, as then, our world cries out for fruitful ideas, for insights into our nature as spiritual beings and our life together in community.
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