Rethinking Economics: Lectures and Seminars on World Economics (Cw 340, 341) in Bloomington, MN

Rudolf Steiner gave this complex sequence of dense, subtle, multileveled lectures and seminars to students of economics in Dornach, Switzerland, in the summer of 1922. The course reflects a lifetime of thinking on the subject and marks the conclusion of his intense five-year period of activism in the service of social, political, and economic issues. During this time, which began as the First World War was ending in 1917, he worked tirelessly to promote the cause of what he called "threefolding" (Dreigliederung), by which he meant rethinking the social order on the basis of the clear separation and independence of the three fundamental spheres of activity that make up society. He proposed three independent systems: an autonomous rights sphere (limited to judicial and political matters); and autonomous economic sphere (cooperative or associative by nature); and an autonomous spiritual-cultural sphere. The autonomy of these three spheres, he believed, would make possible a free, healthy, productive society and open the possibility of a lasting peace. Rethinking Economics is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the true nature of an economy and how it works. Here Rudolf Steiner presents the basic elements of what it would take to create a just, socially responsible, and ecologically aware economy today.