Anthroposophical view of the human being
Encyclopedia
The anthroposophical
view of humans includes:
often described humans as consisting of an eternal spirit, an evolving soul and a temporal body, giving a detailed analysis of each of these three realms.
Spirit: anthroposophical teachings describe the human spirit as eternal yet becoming progressively more individualized and consciously experienced. Steiner believed that humans pass between stages of existence, incarnating into an earthly body, living a life, leaving the body behind and entering into the spiritual worlds before returning to be born again into a new life on earth. In earthly life, the individuality or ego awakens to self-consciousness through its experience of its reflection in the deeds and suffering of a physical body.
Soul: We also have a framework of consciousness that includes our set feelings, concepts and intentions. As each human soul evolves through its experiences, the earth itself and civilization as a whole also evolve; thus, new types of experience are available at each successive incarnation.
Body: Steiner uses the term body to describe the aspects of human existence that endure for a single lifetime. The physical body is the most obvious of these. Permeating our physical existence are forces of life, growth and metamorphosis that maintain and develop the physical body; as it is an aspect of a lifetime that falls away after death, Steiner called this the life or etheric body
. Steiner called that which receives sensory impressions the body of consciousness or sentient body.
A fourfold articulation of the human body often applied to contexts such as medicine
and education includes:
In his mature work, Steiner identified twelve senses: balance, or equilibrioception
; movement, or proprioception
; pain/well-being, or nociception, also called life sense; touch, or tactition; taste, or gustation; smell, or olfaction
; warmth, or thermoception
; sight, or vision
; hearing, or audition
; word / speech; thought / concept; ego / self.
to the living world of plants. Steiner points to sleep life, when the physical body and life organization are identical with waking life, yet sentience is withdrawn, as proof that sentience is not purely a function of the physical and life bodies. Our instincts (and prejudices), emotions and will impulses reside here; these are relatively fixed, in contrast with our more fluid and active soul life.
. This awakens to self-awareness through its experience of the physical body; Steiner points to the lack of a true biography, more particularly of autobiography in animal existence as an indication that the ego is particular to humans and each human has its own distinct 'concept'. The capacity for self-direction and full responsibility are connected to the ego, which anthroposophical researchers describe as only becoming independent around twenty-one years after conception.
The ego experiences itself through all three of the unconscious elements (consciousness, life and physicality) in specific ways: through the astral body, bearer of sentience, in the dreamier experience of the sentient soul; through the life body as rationality in the intellectual soul; through the physical body as fully conscious, autonomous egoity in the consciousness soul. Through differentiating ego consciousness into its experience as mediated through these unconscious organs, this gives a ninefold articulation of a human: physicality, life, consciousness; sentient, intellectual and consciousness soul; spirit self, life spirit, spirit man.
Anthroposophy
Anthroposophy, a philosophy founded by Rudolf Steiner, postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world accessible to direct experience through inner development...
view of humans includes:
Threefold and fourfold view
Rudolf SteinerRudolf Steiner
Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner was an Austrian philosopher, social reformer, architect, and esotericist. He gained initial recognition as a literary critic and cultural philosopher...
often described humans as consisting of an eternal spirit, an evolving soul and a temporal body, giving a detailed analysis of each of these three realms.
Spirit: anthroposophical teachings describe the human spirit as eternal yet becoming progressively more individualized and consciously experienced. Steiner believed that humans pass between stages of existence, incarnating into an earthly body, living a life, leaving the body behind and entering into the spiritual worlds before returning to be born again into a new life on earth. In earthly life, the individuality or ego awakens to self-consciousness through its experience of its reflection in the deeds and suffering of a physical body.
Soul: We also have a framework of consciousness that includes our set feelings, concepts and intentions. As each human soul evolves through its experiences, the earth itself and civilization as a whole also evolve; thus, new types of experience are available at each successive incarnation.
Body: Steiner uses the term body to describe the aspects of human existence that endure for a single lifetime. The physical body is the most obvious of these. Permeating our physical existence are forces of life, growth and metamorphosis that maintain and develop the physical body; as it is an aspect of a lifetime that falls away after death, Steiner called this the life or etheric body
Etheric body
The etheric body, ether-body, æther body, a name given by neo-Theosophy to a supposed vital body or subtle body propounded in esoteric philosophies as the first or lowest layer in the "human energy field" or aura...
. Steiner called that which receives sensory impressions the body of consciousness or sentient body.
A fourfold articulation of the human body often applied to contexts such as medicine
Anthroposophical Medicine
Anthroposophical medicine is a complementary approach to medicine that integrates the theories and practices of modern medicine with homeopathic medicines, physical and artistic therapies and biographical counseling...
and education includes:
- the physical bodyPhysical bodyIn physics, a physical body or physical object is a collection of masses, taken to be one...
as physical-material structure, held in common with the mineralMineralA mineral is a naturally occurring solid chemical substance formed through biogeochemical processes, having characteristic chemical composition, highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties. By comparison, a rock is an aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids and does not...
world; - the life or etheric bodyEtheric bodyThe etheric body, ether-body, æther body, a name given by neo-Theosophy to a supposed vital body or subtle body propounded in esoteric philosophies as the first or lowest layer in the "human energy field" or aura...
, the source of life and growth, held in common with the plantPlantPlants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...
world; - the consciousness or astral bodyAstral bodyThe astral body is a subtle body posited by many religious philosophers, intermediate between the intelligent soul and the physical body, composed of a subtle material. The concept ultimately derives from the philosophy of Plato: it is related to an astral plane, which consists of the planetary...
, held in common with the animalAnimalAnimals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and...
world; - the ego or "I" of the human being, the faculty of self-awarenessSelf-awarenessSelf-awareness is the capacity for introspection and the ability to reconcile oneself as an individual separate from the environment and other individuals...
unique to humanity
Physical body
In the physical body, Steiner differentiated three primary functional areas, each supporting a particular psychological activity:- the nerve/sense system, primarily centered in the nervous system, supporting thinking and perception
- the rhythmic system, including the breathing and the circulatory system, supporting feeling
- the motor-metabolic system, including the organs below the diaphragm and the limbs, supporting willing
In his mature work, Steiner identified twelve senses: balance, or equilibrioception
Equilibrioception
Equilibrioception or sense of balance is one of the physiological senses. It helps prevent humans and animals from falling over when walking or standing still. Balance is the result of a number of body systems working together: the eyes , ears and the body's sense of where it is in space ideally...
; movement, or proprioception
Proprioception
Proprioception , from Latin proprius, meaning "one's own" and perception, is the sense of the relative position of neighbouring parts of the body and strength of effort being employed in movement...
; pain/well-being, or nociception, also called life sense; touch, or tactition; taste, or gustation; smell, or olfaction
Olfaction
Olfaction is the sense of smell. This sense is mediated by specialized sensory cells of the nasal cavity of vertebrates, and, by analogy, sensory cells of the antennae of invertebrates...
; warmth, or thermoception
Thermoception
Thermoception or thermoreception is the sense by which an organism perceives temperature. The details of how temperature receptors work are still being investigated. Ciliopathy is associated with decreased ability to sense heat, thus cilia may aid in the process...
; sight, or vision
Visual perception
Visual perception is the ability to interpret information and surroundings from the effects of visible light reaching the eye. The resulting perception is also known as eyesight, sight, or vision...
; hearing, or audition
Hearing (sense)
Hearing is the ability to perceive sound by detecting vibrations through an organ such as the ear. It is one of the traditional five senses...
; word / speech; thought / concept; ego / self.
Life or etheric body
All that lives has, in addition to a physical body, a permeating life organization. Steiner cites as proof of this the physical identity of a dead and living organism; what is lacking in the former is the element of life itself. Plant life is the embodiment of this.Astral or Feeling body
Animal life adds an element of sentienceSentience
Sentience is the ability to feel, perceive or be conscious, or to have subjective experiences. Eighteenth century philosophers used the concept to distinguish the ability to think from the ability to feel . In modern western philosophy, sentience is the ability to have sensations or experiences...
to the living world of plants. Steiner points to sleep life, when the physical body and life organization are identical with waking life, yet sentience is withdrawn, as proof that sentience is not purely a function of the physical and life bodies. Our instincts (and prejudices), emotions and will impulses reside here; these are relatively fixed, in contrast with our more fluid and active soul life.
Ego or "I"
Human existence includes an element distinct from animate life, the egoEgo (spirituality)
In spirituality, and especially nondual, mystical and eastern meditative traditions, individual existence is often described as a kind of illusion. This "sense of doership" or sense of individual existence is that part which believes it is the human being, and believes it must fight for itself in...
. This awakens to self-awareness through its experience of the physical body; Steiner points to the lack of a true biography, more particularly of autobiography in animal existence as an indication that the ego is particular to humans and each human has its own distinct 'concept'. The capacity for self-direction and full responsibility are connected to the ego, which anthroposophical researchers describe as only becoming independent around twenty-one years after conception.
Sevenfold view
In Steiner's sevenfold and ninefold descriptions, a human is composed of physical-body, life-body, astral-body, ego, spirit-self, life-spirit, and spirit-man.- the physical body, material structure
- the life body, life processes,
- the astral body, bearer of consciousness,
- the ego, self-awareness,
- the spirit-self, intuition and self,
- the life-spirit, enduring spirit-soul content,
- the spirit-man, the fully individuated spirit.
The ego experiences itself through all three of the unconscious elements (consciousness, life and physicality) in specific ways: through the astral body, bearer of sentience, in the dreamier experience of the sentient soul; through the life body as rationality in the intellectual soul; through the physical body as fully conscious, autonomous egoity in the consciousness soul. Through differentiating ego consciousness into its experience as mediated through these unconscious organs, this gives a ninefold articulation of a human: physicality, life, consciousness; sentient, intellectual and consciousness soul; spirit self, life spirit, spirit man.