This episode explores some of author Marilynne Robinson’s thoughts about the importance of seeing people as spiritual beings and how this relates to the history of civil and political rights in North America, and especially the USA. These thoughts are connected with current tensions within both US universities and society at large, and the role that artistic education plays in being able to experience a deeper, spiritual facet of human beings.

References:

Rachel Feintzeig, (2025) Opinion | Zombies Are Better Than the Alternative. The New York Times, 25 May. Available at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/25/opinion/last-of-us-finale.html, accessed 4 June 2025.

Marilynne Robinson, (2010) Absence of Mind: Dispelling of Inwardness from the Modern Myth of the Self. (Yale University Press).

Marilynne Robinson, (2019) Which Way to the City on a Hill? The New York Review of Books. Available at https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2019/07/18/which-way-city-hill/, accessed 4 June 2025.

Rudolf Steiner(2006) Becoming the Archangel Michael’s Companions: Rudolf Steiner’s Challenge to the Younger Generation (CW 217). (SteinerBooks).

Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV.
To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations.

This episode explores challenging experiences that young people can have when they first enter college and university with enthusiasm for existential, heartfelt questions. It is not uncommon for young people to feel that the attitudes and methods they meet in the classroom and their professors cannot reach deep enough into the questions they are most passionate about and driven to explore. This can lead to disappointment and a temptation to turn away from their passions for knowledge, growth and understanding. There are, however, ideas, orientations and contemporary calls for expanding the understanding of science in ways that can accommodate the exploration of deeper questions and riddles that are not only intellectual but matters of the heart. Jeffrey Kripal’s suggestion that a new school of the “Superhumanities” is called for, as well as Hubert Dreyfuss and Charles Taylor’s ideas of Pluralist Robust Realism are introduced as examples.

References:

Hubert Dreyfus and Charles Taylor (2015) Retrieving Realism. (Harvard University Press).

William James (2008) Pluralistic Universe: Hibbert Lectures at Manchester College on the Present Situation in Philosophy. (Cambridge Scholars Publisher).

Jeffrey Kripal (2022) The Superhumanities: Historical Precedents, Moral Objections, New Realities. (University of Chicago Press).

Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV.
To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations.

Currently in the USA there is a “revolution of common sense” underway under the banner of nationalism, competition for natural resources and economic growth without regard for ecological limitations. In the last two episodes Steiner’s notion of aesthetic culture, that embraces not only the arts and humanities but also natural science and economics, was presented as an alternate vision for a revolution of common sense. Some of the most positive developments of the last century, the emergence of the modern environmental movement and social-ecological finance and banking, have recently been shown to be connected with Steiner’s influence in these areas by Dan McKanan. This episode presents two examples of strategies, in modern political thought and philosophy, to navigate tensions between “anaesthetic” and technocratic tendencies in the natural sciences and economy on the one hand, and lived, human experience on the other. What comes to the fore is a gap, one that a true revolution of common sense might fill.

References:

Glazebrook, Trish (2004) Global Technology and the Promise of Control, in David Tabachnick and Toivo Koivukoski (eds), Globalization, Technology, and Philosophy. (SUNY Press, Albany).

Heidegger, Martin (1977) The Question Concerning Technology, and Other Essays. (New York: Harper Collins).

McKanan, Dan (2017) Eco-Alchemy: Anthroposophy and the History and Future of Environmentalism. (Berkeley, CA: Univ of California Press).

Stallabrass, Julian (2020) Contemporary Art: a Very Short Introduction. (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV.
To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations.

Building on the previous episode this session explores the connection between natural science, as intuitive, empirical understanding, and Steiner’s associative economics, particularly the idea of true price. The result is a picture of a revolution of common sense that counters nationalism, fosters sober judgement across from natural and social conditions of life and encourages global, voluntary cooperation in a fraternal spirit. It is a revolution of common sense in stark contrast with what is currently being championed under the same name.

Steiner, Rudolf (2013) Rethinking Economics: Lectures and Seminars on World Economics. Vol. CW 340-41. (Great Barrington, MA: SteinerBooks).

Steiner, Rudolf (2021) Die Philosophie der Freiheit: Grundzüge einer modernen Weltanschauung - Seelische Beobachtungsresultate nach naturwissenschaftlicher Methode. Vol. GA 4. (Dornach, Switzerland: Rudolf Steiner Verlag).

McKanan, Dan (2017) Eco-Alchemy: Anthroposophy and the History and Future of Environmentalism. (Berkeley, CA: Univ of California Press).

Groh, Trauger, and Steven McFadden (1998) Farms of Tomorrow Revisited. (Kimberton, PA: SteinerBooks).

Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV.
To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations.

Talk of a revolution of common sense in the USA and around the world is focused on nationalism, economic competition and development without regard of environmental and ecological considerations. This episode suggests the revolution offers a false promise even while the widespread appeal of the idea of a revolution of common sense is deeply justified. In this episode Goethe’s natural scientific method of intuitive understanding is presented as a discipline of common sense, or aesthetics, with reference to the role it played during the emergence of the modern environmental movement and green banks. A follow up episode indicates how this is connected with Rudolf Steiner’s associative economics, how Goethe’s primal phenomena is for theoretical philosophy what true price is for economic, practical philosophy.

References:

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von (1975) Goethes Naturwissenschaftliche Schriften Ed. Rudolf Steiner. Vol. I-V. (Dornach, Switzerland: Rudolf Steiner Verlag).

Förster, Eckart (2017) Die 25 Jahre Der Philosophie. (Frankfurt, Germnay: Vittorio Klostermann GmbH).

McKanan, Dan (2017) Eco-Alchemy: Anthroposophy and the History and Future of Environmentalism. (Berkeley, CA: Univ of California Press).

https://www.natureinstitute.org/

https://science.goetheanum.org/en/section/natural-science-section

Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV.
To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations.

While the idea of multi-dimensional beings is discussed in the congress of the United States in open hearings, it can take courage to try to understand Ufology and experience. This session explores recent research, especially on UFO experiencers, by sociologist D.W. Pasulka, and Rudolf Steiner’s presentation of late Medieval consciousness in Leading Thoughts, situating them in a larger understanding of development and human evolution.

References:

Pasulka, D. W. (2019) American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology. (Oxford University Press).

Pasulka, D. W. (2023) Encounters: Experiences with Nonhuman Intelligences. (St. Martin’s Publishing Group).

Steiner, Rudolf (1998) Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts. (Rudolf Steiner Press).

Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV.
To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations.

Even though many people feel it is meaningful to speak of the light and colors when trying to express something deeper in human nature, in most places we are asking to be judged as superstitious or naïve if we insist on speaking about the spiritual aura. In many places it is perhaps most associated in some places with traveling carnival culture and the desire to be entertained. One might have one picture taken, with aura included, in the same booth where one can have a palm reading. When are these perceptions pathological and how can they be approached in a discerning way?

References:

Sebastian Barry (2017) Days Without End. (Penguin).

Rudolf Steiner (2005) Theosophy: An Introduction to the Supersensible Knowledge of the World and the Destination of Man. (Rudolf Steiner Press).

Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV.
To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations.

How can we contemplate history with an openness for its greater meaning? Many young people who are studying in the social sciences or anthropology may feel drawn to ask this question, but today, without a doubt, it takes courage to think about this. This segment focuses on the development of perspective painting during the European Renaissance, looking back toward eastern iconographic painting and looking forward to modern art with the question of what they could signify if we have openness to greater spiritual meanings in history.

References:

Barfield, Owen (2013) The Camera and the Harp, in , The Rediscovery of Meaning: And Other Essays. (UK: Barfield Press).

florensky, Pavel (1996) Iconostasis. (Crestwood NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press).

Mulisch, Harry (1997) The Discovery of Heaven. (Penguin Publishing Group).

Solovyov, Vladimir (1995) Lectures on Divine Humanity. (SteinerBooks).

Steffen, Albert (1968) Geist-Erwachen im Farben-Erleben: Bertrachtungen, Skizzen, Erinnerungen. (Verlag für Schöne Wissenschaften).

Steiner, Rudolf (2023) The Arts and Their Mission: (CW 276). (SteinerBooks).

Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV.
To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations.