Sustainable development and the anthroposophical worldview

Abstract

Anthroposophy provides profound insights into the challenges of sustain- able development. In Steiner’s vision of human nature, sustainability requires maintaining a delicate balance in the human value orientation between the fundamentally opposing forces that determine the human condition: the mate- rialistic versus the spiritual and the particular (individual) versus the universal (collective). When this holistic awareness of the human condition is lost, one- sided value orientations dominate, leading to the erosion of both human dignity and sustainability. By organising society in a threefold social order, according to the three constituent (cultural, political, and economic) parts of the human con- dition, Steiner aimed to support a balanced, “sustainable” value orientation with organisational means. This balanced and thus humane view of human nature holds the promise of a meaningful life in a healthy society.