As the editor of Goethe's scientific writings during the 1880s,
Rudolf Steiner became immersed in a worldview that
paralleled and amplified his own views in relation to
epistemology, the interface between science and
philosophy, the theory of how we know the world
and ourselves. At the time, like much of the thinking
today and the foundation of modern natural science,
the predominant theories held that individual knowledge
is limited to thinking that reflects objective, sensory
perception. Steiner view was eventually distilled
in his Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts in 1924:

There are those who believe that, with the limits
of knowledge derived from sensory perception,
the limits of all insight are given. Yet if they
would carefully observe how they become
conscious of these limits, they would find
in the very consciousness of the limits the
faculties to transcend them.

In this concise volume, Steiner lays out his argument
for this view and, moreover, begins his explication of
how one goes beyond thinking to the observation of
thinking itself.

Goethe's Theory of Knowledge is essential reading
for a deeper understanding of Rudolf Steiner seminal
work, Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path: A Philosophy of Freedom.

CONTENTS:

• Introduction by Christopher Bamford
• Preface to the Edition of 1924 by Rudolf Steiner
• Foreword to the First Edition (1886) by Rudolf Steiner
• A. Preliminary Questions
  • 1. The Point of Departure
  • 2. Goethe Science According to Schiller Method
  • 3. The Purpose of Our Science
• B. Experience
  • 4. Establishing the Concept of Experience
  • 5. Examining the Essence of Experience
  • 6. Correcting the Erroneous View of Experience as a Totality
  • 7. The Experience of Each Individual Reader
• C. Thinking
  • 8. Thinking as a Higher Experience within Experience
  • 9. Thinking and Consciousness
  • 10. The Inner Nature of Thinking
• D. Knowledge
  • 11. Thought and Perception
  • 12. Intellect and Reason
  • 13. The Act of Cognition
  • 14. Cognition and the Ultimate Ground of Things
• E. Knowing Nature
  • 15. Inorganic Nature
  • 16. Organic Nature
• F. The Humanities
  • 17. Introduction: Mind and Nature
  • 18. Psychological Cognition
  • 19. Human Freedom
  • 20. Optimism and Pessimism
• G. Conclusion
  • 21. Knowledge and Artistic Creation
• Notes to the First Edition [1886]
• Annotations to the Edition of 1924

A Theory of Knowledge is a translation from the German
of Grundlinien einer Erkenntnistheorie der Goetheschen
Weltanschauung, mit besonderer Rksicht auf Schiller (GA 2).
Previous translations were published as
The Science of Knowing (1988) and The Theory of Knowledge
implicit in Goethe's World-Conception:
Fundamental Outlines with Special Reference to Schiller (1940).