The Social Archetype

Realizing Society’s Threefold Unity, A New Goetheanism

Nigel Hoffmann

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English

Clairview Books
24 May 2024

Theosophy & Anthroposophy; Social theory

We live in a time of multiple challenges to our rights and freedoms – not only in authoritarian regimes but also in liberal democracies around the globe. As the storm clouds of crisis gather, Rudolf Steiner’s social vision – now a century old – offers a clear way forward.

Radical in his time and still so today, Steiner’s ‘social threefolding’ is not conceived as a logical ‘system’. Rather, his picture of society as a living threefold unity, as a social ‘organism’, is an artistic insight that needs to be grasped imaginatively. To understand its three dimensions – the economic, the political-legal and cultural-spiritual spheres – and how they relate to each other, is to experience them inwardly. This requires a living, creative thinking that is able to enter the archetypal forces behind the concepts: a modern-day, truly Goethean approach to the social sciences.

In an illuminating study, Hoffmann’s dynamic presentation enables us to develop precisely such an artistic–imaginative understanding of the threefold social organism. He achieves this through clear descriptions of its principles and practical governance, whilst offering wise advice regarding the adaptation of education – at school and tertiary levels – for a threefold society.

By: Nigel Hoffmann
Imprint: Clairview Books
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781912992553
ISBN 10: 1912992558
Pages: 206
Publication Date: 24 May 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Introduction – PART I – THE THREEFOLD SOCIAL ORDER – Chapter 1 – Rudolf Steiner’s Social Impulse – Chapter 2 – The Threefold Social Order – Chapter 3 – The Differentiation of the Three Social Spheres – PART II – A NEW SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL ART – Chapter 4 – Social Science Re-imagined – Chapter 5 – Social Art -– PART III – THE THREE SPHERES AND THEIR GOVERNANCE – Chapter 6 – The Economic Sphere – Chapter 7 – The Political-Rights Sphere – Chapter 8 – The Cultural-Spiritual Sphere – Chapter 9 – The Question of Governance – PART IV – EDUCATION TOWARD THE THREEFOLD SOCIAL ORDER – Chapter 10 – School Education – Chapter 11 – Tertiary Education

NIGEL HOFFMANN PhD has been a high school teacher for eighteen years in Australian and Swiss Rudolf Steiner schools. He is the author of Goethe’s Science of Living Form, The Artistic Stages (Adonis Press) and The University at the Threshold, Orientation through Goethean Science (Rudolf Steiner Press). He is the coordinator of Atelier for the Social Quest: ateliersocialquest.com