Been looking into Rudolf Steiner a bit lately. He is the guy who founded what are now called Waldorf Schools, an alternative education system. He was a spiritual philosopher and also created something called Anthroposophy, which was an offshoot from Theosophy (if you know anything about that). Anyway, rather than me summarizing what I’ve read about him so far, I recommend checking out this excellent article about him.

The article is actually on that Skeptic’s Dictionary website, which I usually think sucks. It’s ordinarily a den of people trying to tear down things they don’t understand, simply because they are not logically or rationally reducible. But this essay on Steiner is actually really nicely even-handed, and gives an overview of what he was after without just straight out trashing him.

I especially dig this passage towards the end, where the author is saying that they agree with the essential principles of the Waldorf system, without necessarily understanding the need for it being rooted in arcane spirituality:

Is it that hard to defend love and cooperation without having to ground them in some cosmic mist? Why does one have to leap into the realm of murky mysticism in order to defend criticizing the harm done to the individual by a life spent in pursuit of material possessions with little concern for what is being done to other human beings or to the planet? Why does one have to blame lack of spirituality for the evil around us? One might as well blame too much spirituality for our problems: The spiritual people think so little of this material world that they don’t do enough to make it a better place. Why can’t people tell stories, dance and sing, play music, create works of art, and study chemistry, biology, and physics? Why can’t we study the natural world without the process being seen either as a means to job security and material wealth or as harmonizing one’s soul with cosmic spirituality?

Children should not be burdened with either spirituality or materialism. They should be loved and be taught to love. They should be allowed to grow in an atmosphere of cooperation. They should be introduced to the best we have to offer in nature, art, and science in such a way that they do not have to connect everything either to their souls or to their future jobs.

I personally don’t see what’s so damned horrible about connecting things to your “soul,” but I like the basic gist of what they are saying. Good stuff.