Editing Rudolf Steiner (section)

=== Writer and philosopher ===
The young Steiner emerged as an individualist, [[positivism|positivist]] and freethinker, who was not afraid to refer to scandalous philosophers such as Stirner, Nietzsche and Haeckel. His freethinking culminated in a contempt for religion and faith. He attributed almost pathological traits to Christianity.<ref>So Gerhard Wehr: ''Rudolf Steiner. Leben, Erkenntnis, Kulturimpuls. Eine Biographie''. Diogenes, Zürich 1993, p. 132.</ref>

In 1888, as a result of his work for the Kürschner edition of [[Goethe]]'s works, Steiner was invited to work as an editor at the Goethe archives in [[Weimar]]. Steiner remained with the archive until 1896. It was a low-paid and boring job.<ref name="Cees" /> As well as the introductions for and commentaries to four volumes of Goethe's scientific writings, Steiner wrote two books about Goethe's philosophy: ''The Theory of Knowledge Implicit in Goethe's World-Conception'' (1886),<ref>[http://www.rsarchive.org/Books/GA002/ "Theory of Knowledge Implicit in Goethe's World Conception"], also translated as ''Goethe's Theory of Knowledge, An Outline of the Epistemology of His Worldview''</ref> which Steiner regarded as the [[epistemological]] foundation and justification for his later work,<ref>Preface to 1924 edition of [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Books/GA002/English/AP1985/GA002_pre1924.html ''The Theory of Knowledge Implicit in Goethe's World-Conception, with Specific Reference to Schiller''], in which Steiner also wrote that the way of knowing he presented in this work opened the way from the sensory world to the spiritual one.</ref> and ''Goethe's Conception of the World'' (1897).<ref>Rudolf Steiner, ''Goethean Science'', Mercury Press, 1988 {{ISBN|0-936132-92-2}}, {{ISBN|978-0-936132-92-1}}, [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Books/GA001/English/MP1988/GA001_index.html link]</ref> During this time he also collaborated in complete editions of the works of [[Arthur Schopenhauer]] and the writer [[Jean Paul]] and wrote numerous articles for various journals.

[[File:Rudolf Steiner um 1891.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Rudolf Steiner around 1891–92, etching by Otto Fröhlich]]

In 1891, Steiner received a doctorate in philosophy at the [[University of Rostock]], for his dissertation discussing 
[[Johann Gottlieb Fichte|Fichte]]'s concept of the ego,<ref name=RAMcD/><ref>His thesis title was ''Die Grundfrage der Erkenntnistheorie mit besonderer Rücksicht auf Fichte's [[Wissenschaftslehre (Fichte)|Wissenschaftslehre]] – Prolegomena zur Verständigung des philosophierenden Bewusstseins mit sich selbst''.</ref> submitted to {{ill|Heinrich von Stein|de}}, whose ''Seven Books of Platonism'' Steiner esteemed.<ref name=Auto/>{{rp|[http://wn.rsarchive.org/Books/GA028/TSoML/GA028_c14.html Chap. 14]}} Steiner's dissertation was later published in expanded form as ''Truth and Knowledge: Prelude to a Philosophy of Freedom'', with a dedication to [[Eduard von Hartmann]].<ref>[http://www.rsarchive.org/Books/GA003/index.php ''Truth and Knowledge'' (full text)]. {{langx|de|Wahrheit und Wissenschaft – Vorspiel einer Philosophie der Freiheit}}</ref> Two years later, in 1894, he published ''Die Philosophie der Freiheit'' ([[The Philosophy of Freedom|The Philosophy of Freedom ''or'' The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity]], the latter being Steiner's preferred English title), an exploration of [[epistemology]] and ethics that suggested a way for humans to become spiritually free beings. Steiner hoped that the book "would gain him a professorship", but the book was not well received.<ref name="Cees" /> Steiner later spoke of this book as containing implicitly, in philosophical form, the entire content of what he later developed explicitly as [[anthroposophy]].<ref>Sergei Prokofieff, ''May Human Beings Hear It!'', Temple Lodge, 2004. p. 460</ref>

[[File:RudolfSteiner.jpeg|right|thumb|Steiner, c.1900]]
In 1896, Steiner declined an offer from [[Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche]] to help organize the Nietzsche archive in [[Naumburg]]. Her brother, [[Friedrich Nietzsche]], was by that time ''[[non compos mentis]]''. "Hoping for a job (which, in fact, he did not get), Steiner accepted the invitation immediately."<ref name="o046">{{Cite book |last=Steiner |first=Rudolf |title=Rethinking Economics |date=2013-06-01 |publisher=SteinerBooks |isbn=978-1-62148-050-1 |publication-place=Great Barrington, Mass |page=unpaginated |quote=Hoping for a job (which, in fact, he did not get), Steiner accepted the invitation immediately.}}</ref> Förster-Nietzsche introduced Steiner into the presence of the [[catatonic]] philosopher; Steiner, deeply moved, subsequently wrote the book ''Friedrich Nietzsche, Fighter for Freedom''.<ref>Rudolf Steiner, ''Friedrich Nietzsche, Fighter for Freedom'' Garber Communications; 2nd revised edition (July 1985) {{ISBN|978-0893450335}}. Online [https://wn.rudolfsteinerelib.org/Books/GA005/English/GC1985/GA005_index.html] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221002010010/https://wn.rudolfsteinerelib.org/Books/GA005/English/GC1985/GA005_index.html|date=2 October 2022}}</ref> Steiner later related that:

<blockquote>My first acquaintance with Nietzsche's writings belongs to the year 1889. Previous to that I had never read a line of his. Upon the substance of my ideas as these find expression in ''The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity'', Nietzsche's thought had not the least influence....Nietzsche's ideas of the '[[Ewige Wiederkunft|eternal recurrence]]' and of '[[Übermensch]]' remained long in my mind. For in these was reflected that which a personality must feel concerning the evolution and essential being of humanity when this personality is kept back from grasping the spiritual world by the restricted thought in the philosophy of nature characterizing the end of the 19th century....What attracted me particularly was that one could read Nietzsche without coming upon anything which strove to make the reader a 'dependent' of Nietzsche's.<ref name=Auto/>{{rp|[http://wn.rsarchive.org/Books/GA028/TSoML/GA028_c18.html Chap. 18]}}</blockquote>

In 1897, Steiner left the [[Weimar]] archives and moved to Berlin. He became part owner of, chief editor of, and an active contributor to the literary journal ''Magazin für Literatur'', where he hoped to find a readership sympathetic to his philosophy. Many subscribers were alienated by Steiner's unpopular support of [[Émile Zola]] in the [[Dreyfus Affair]]<ref name="GL">{{harvnb|Lachman|2007}}</ref> and the journal lost more subscribers when Steiner published extracts from his correspondence with anarchist [[John Henry Mackay]].<ref name="GL" /> Dissatisfaction with his editorial style eventually led to his departure from the magazine. In 1899, Steiner married Anna Eunicke; the couple separated several years later. Anna died in 1911.<ref name="CL" /> Steiner's marriage to Anna "was clearly a marriage of convenience".{{sfn|McDermott|1992|p=293}}

Despite his fame as a teacher of esotericism, Steiner was culturally and academically isolated.{{sfn|Leijenhorst|2006|p=1088|ps=: "Despite his success as an esoteric teacher, Steiner seems to have suffered from being shut off from academic and general cultural life, given his continued attempts at getting academic positions or jobs as a journalist."}}

{{blockquote|1=Worse, he couldn't be a real ''philosopher'' either; his theosophy and anthroposophy and the Waldorf humanism in particular were considered pseudoscience or at best pedagogy, not a philosophical system. Steiner's credentials were not university-level professional work. [...] German mainstream scholarship called him an 'autodidact, with a poor teacher' and 'gypsy-intellectual.'{{sup|144}} Not uncommon for practitioners at the fringes of society, he was accused of class treason.<ref name="t111">{{Cite book |last=Pattberg |first=Thorsten J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nbh_EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA125 |title=Shengren: Above Philosophy and Beyond Religion |publisher=LoD Press, New York |year=2012 |page=125 |quote=Worse, he couldn't be a real ''philosopher'' either; his theosophy and anthroposophy and the Waldorf humanism in particular were considered pseudoscience or at best pedagogy, not a philosophical system. Steiner's credentials were not university-level professional work. [...] German mainstream scholarship called him an 'autodidact, with a poor teacher' and 'gypsy-intellectual.'{{sup|144}} Not uncommon for practitioners at the fringes of society, he was accused of class treason. |access-date=15 August 2024}}</ref>|2=Thorsten J. Pattberg}}