Anthroposophy as the Basis for Pedagogical Anthropology

Abstract

In present times, the philosophical anthropology of education is a rather neglected field of inquiry. Steiner’s view is that the practice of education must be based on a true understanding of the nature of the human being and of children’s development. His spiritual and holistic view can be described as encompassing the physical, the physiological, the psychological and the existential or spiritual aspects of the human being. As for psychology, the functions of thinking, feeling and willing and their development during childhood are of primary importance for education. Other aspects are the classical idea of the four temperaments, and the twelve senses of the human organism. This chapter ends with considering Steiner’s far-sighted view of human development, which includes the whole individual life span as well as the cultural history of humanity, and some affinities between his views and Romantic ideas in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.