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Two Approaches to Anthroposophy [Spiritual Science]
The first of these, which is perhaps the easiest for most people who feel drawn to this kind of material, is Theosophy – An Introduction to the Supersensible Knowledge of the World and the Destination of Man.
The second approach is for the hard-nosed philosophical and scientific thinker, the critical, analytical mind, namely The Philosophy of Freedom (initially translated as Philosophy of Spiritual Activity as recommended by the author).
This book has absolutely no supernatural content whatsoever; it provides the philosophical and epistemological foundation for everything Steiner gave out through his lectures later: Humanism, empiricism, and monism, with Charles Darwin’s natural science as point of departure. This is the most important of all Steiner’s works. 30 years later, when asked which of his works would be best remembered by posterity, Rudolf Steiner answered without a moment’s hesitation: “The Philosophy of Freedom will survive all my other works.”
The Philosophy of Freedom, often referred to as the PoF for brevity, is quite a heavy digest, however, and may need several re-reads, at least some of the chapters. For this approach, I would recommend first reading Truth and Knowledge. This is Rudolf Steiner’s doctoral thesis, published in 1892 as an introduction to The Philosophy of Freedom. It’s a nice introduction to the science of epistemology that also makes it clear why Steiner disagreed with Kant, who was, and still is, the most influential of epistemological philosophers.
The first approach, though, through the book Theosophy, is a much shorter and easier way to grasp the cosmological and evolutionary background that many of the lectures are based upon. This enormous body of lectures covers an incredibly diverse range of topics. They may be extremely challenging to follow without the foreknowledge outlined in the basic books. A very useful follow-up to Theosophy would be Occult Science — An Outline. This book is a sequel to Theosophy and deals with the evolution of Man and the Earth.
Theosophy then Occult Science — An Outline
OR
Truth and Knowledge then The Philosophy of Freedom
Note: The PDFs linked to above are from my personal library. They are meant for personal use only. Please respect the source’s copyright policies.