Author: Iwao Takahashi

Hello everyone. This is Shoji Shimura from Atelier Shimura. This week, I'd like to introduce the first volume of Iwao Takahashi's book, "Reading the Future of Society: An Introduction to Steiner's Theory of Society." This book is the first of a three-volume series published in 2021 and is an introductory book for thinking about Steiner's theory of society.

"Reading 'The Future of Society'"
Author: Iwao Takahashi Publisher: Shunjusha (2024)

【 table of contents 】
Lecture 1: Social Theory as a Spiritual Problem
Lecture 2: Economic life - The value of labor Lecture 3: Legal life - Sharing social awareness Lecture 4: Spiritual life - Freedom, individuality, and immersion Lecture 5: Toward harmony between spirit, law, and economy Lecture 6: National life and international life

The author, Professor Iwao Takahashi, passed away last year, but he was a leader of the Anthroposophical movement in Japan for many years. He was also a leading authority on Steiner studies in Japan, and I believe he was a thinker who established Steiner's European philosophy in Japan as his own. He left a strong impression as a thinker, more than as a researcher.

"Introduction to Steiner's Social Theory" is a compilation of lectures by Professor Takahashi. While translating Steiner's works, Professor Takahashi has also been holding courses and lectures based on their content for decades. The translation process itself was a part of Professor Takahashi's ideological endeavor, and his translations may have been born in part from collaboration with the participants of his courses and lectures.

Rudolf Steiner, the thinker who predicted modern society

Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) was an Austrian thinker. He experienced World War I and was a man who keenly anticipated the problems we face in the 21st century. His ideas are known as the system of thought known as "anthroposophy."

Rather than being a scholar who taught at universities, Steiner was a man who gave lectures throughout his life. He gave thousands of lectures, and his collected works, published in Germany, run to hundreds of volumes, but I hear they are still incomplete. He was such a vast thinker, and at the same time, his ideas are extremely difficult to understand.

The difficulty of understanding Steiner's ideas stems from the fact that, unlike German idealism, they include spiritual and mystical ideas, making them difficult to visualize. Without a certain level of imagination, it is difficult to understand his words. However, Takahashi Sensei explains Steiner's difficult ideas in a very easy-to-understand way. While it is of course important to read Steiner's original works, I believe that through Takahashi Sensei's writings, we can learn about a "Japanese version of Steiner."

This book, "Reading 'The Future of Society'," is based on "The Future of Society," a text that compiles lectures that Steiner gave in 1919, shortly after the end of World War I. World War I had an immeasurable impact on European society, creating an opportunity for a major reassessment of European civilization itself. At a time when the ideals that Europe had upheld had collapsed, how should a devastated society be rebuilt? This lecture was given in response to that question.

A major theme of "The Future of Society" is the idea of the tripartite division of the social organism. Steiner argued that society can be viewed as a single organism and segmented into three systems: economic life, legal life, and spiritual life. This book by Takahashi is a reinterpretation of this century-old proposal from a modern perspective. The book's dust jacket states that this idea of the tripartite division of the social organism has also influenced modern basic income theory, making it extremely interesting to see how this idea from the immediate aftermath of World War I is connected to the present day.

The spiritual history of humanity and the "transformation of all values"

At the beginning of this book, Takahashi Sensei discusses Steiner's division of the spiritual history of humanity. According to Steiner, the history of the development of the human spirit can be divided into three stages.

The first stage is the Age of Tradition. In Europe, this corresponds to the Middle Ages, when Christian morality and ethics dominated society. However, in the second half of the 19th century (around the 1870s), what Nietzsche called a "transformation of all values" occurred. This refers to the change from a traditional Christian society to the second stage, the "Age of Liberty," in which diverse ideas and values were born. Japan's Meiji Restoration also occurred during this period, and the movement from a traditional society to an age of freedom can be said to have been a global trend.

The phrase "transformation of all values" was originally coined by Nietzsche. He used this term to describe the situation in which existing values governed by Christian morality are transformed and new values are born. Nietzsche pointed out that at the root of traditional Christian morality lies "ressentiment," the resentment and jealousy of the weak. Values such as weakness, sacrifice, compassion, and humility are considered "good," while strength, self-assertion, power, and nobility are considered "evil." Nietzsche's ideas, which found ressentiment behind this concept of good and evil, had a profound impact on European society at the time.

So what was the new principle of value that Nietzsche advocated? It was the "will to power." This is not simply a desire for power, but the power to overcome oneself and create a new self. In an era when traditional values are collapsing and everything is relativized, when absolute values are lost, it is easy to fall into nihilism—a nihilistic mindset that says, "Any value is fine." Nietzsche argued that to survive powerfully in such an era, we must have the power to create our own values, that is, become "supermen" who can overcome nihilism. This is also an argument that we should return to the fundamental life impulses that we inherently possess, which have been suppressed by Christian morality. This was indicative of a concern that existing values are restricting the life impulse, something that is also reflected in Taro Okamoto's fascination with Jomon pottery.

From the "Age of Freedom" to the "Age of Love"

Steiner also believed that we should be freed from the traditional age and live according to our own life impulses. This was the "first transformation of all values" and the arrival of the "age of freedom."

However, according to Steiner, humans must not remain in the Age of Freedom. The ego must further grow spiritually and enter the second era of "the transformation of all values." This is the transformation that was supposed to occur in the 20th century, and refers to the transition from the Age of Freedom to the third stage, the "Age of Love."

Steiner's "love" is the idea that all beings should be fundamentally recognized as unique and irreplaceable. The era of freedom was a step forward in that it freed people from the traditions of the past, but the superiority or inferiority of beings still remained. The logic that the superior will survive through competition shows how freedom and capitalism are easily linked.

The "Age of Love" that lies ahead is a society in which we recognize each other as incomparable and unique. This impulse is the "impulse of love."

How can society move from this age of "freedom" to an age of "love"? This was the fundamental question of Steiner's anthroposophical movement. Steiner believed that humans inherently possess a "Christ impulse" that allows them to recognize others as unique beings. According to him, at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha, when Christ was crucified and resurrected, Christ's spiritual power flowed into the Earth, thereby accelerating the spiritual evolution of humanity. His basic outline was that after Christ's crucifixion, the human ego became awakened, and as we achieved spiritual growth, we were able to develop "free will" and "the capacity for love."

From this perspective, we have grown spiritually through the Christ Impulse and have reached the "Age of Freedom," but the question arises as to how we can grow further into the "Age of Love." This question was Steiner's fundamental concern and the goal of the Anthroposophical movement. The Anthroposophical movement is about understanding the Christ Impulse in modern times and putting its power to practical use in order to usher in the Age of Love. This is why Steiner went beyond ideology to engage in a variety of social practices, including biodynamic agriculture, medicine, and artistic activities such as eurythmy.

Two Social Theories: "Me in Society" and "Society in Me"

We are now at a turning point from the "Age of Freedom" to the "Age of Love." What kind of society should we envision in these times? Professor Takahashi states that there are two contrasting ways of thinking that serve as the starting point for social theory.

One is the concept of "I in society." This is the idea that we are born into an existing society and enter that society through school education and other means. In this case, education aims to teach children the culture and literacy of the existing society and help them adapt to society. The issue becomes how well one adapts to society, and it becomes difficult to have a critical perspective on the society to which one is adapting.

The other is the opposite, the idea of "society within me." This starts from the "social will" within oneself, that is, the will to "how one wants to be in this world." Because society is conceived from the way we want to exist, which is close to the vital impulse that each individual possesses, it inevitably clashes with existing society. It is through this clash that our social will matures.

Do we think of society as a matter of "adaptation," or do we think of it from the perspective of individual "social will"? Depending on which position one takes, a completely different theory of society will emerge. Steiner, of course, chose the latter path, which is to think of society from the perspective of "society within myself."

This perspective is also related to the question of how to evaluate modern society. According to Steiner, modern society is dominated by commercialism and technology. Particularly given the situation immediately after World War I, his view of society was negative rather than positive. His social theory is based on the reflection that European civilization was destroyed by commercialism and technology.

If this is the case, we must reconsider the very problem we are trying to solve: how to enter into existing society, which is premised on the existing society. Adapting to existing society will not solve the fundamental problem.

How do you think about the future of society?

When we think about social theory, the fundamental question should be, "What does the social will within me desire?" It is a question that each individual should ask themselves, and the answer may not be immediately apparent. The more successful people are in today's society, the less likely they are to have such a question, and conversely, those who feel uncomfortable may be more likely to become aware of their own social will. In any case, it is important to first ask that question.

Here, as another perspective for understanding society, let us touch on the long-standing debate between "Gemeinschaft" and "Gesellschaft."

A "gemeinschaft" (community) is a community bound by feelings and customs: individuals, families, peoples, and humanity, all of which share a common destiny.

In contrast, the "Gesellschaft" (profit society) emerged in modern times. This includes citizens, corporations, nations, and international organizations. These are bound together not by emotion, but by goal-rationality and profit. In organizations with a shared purpose, such as a company, there is a tendency for individuals to be used as a means to an end and sacrificed, which can be a problem.

In modern times, we live primarily in this Gesellschaft society, that is, in communities of citizens, corporations, and the state. As long as we go to work or school and work within the state, we have to struggle. In this situation, how should we think about the society of the future? That is the main theme of this book.

Part 2 is here

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