Documents to The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity
GA 4a
This supplement to the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity contains facsimiles of many of Rudolf Steiners notes made while writing and editing this work.
It additionally contains the changes made between the first edition of 1894 and the revised edition of 1918 on which most English translations are based.
The Philosophy of Freedom (1916)
This first English translation was the only one sanctioned by Rudolf Steiner himself. Joint translators Prof. and Mrs. R. F. Alfred Hoernlé were selected for their outstanding qualifications. It includes inspiring passages about individualism that were removed from the book in 1918 and are missing in later translations: “We no longer believe that there is a norm to which we must all strive to conform. Nothing is accepted as valid, unless it springs from the roots of individuality. The saying ‘Each one of us must choose his hero in whose footsteps he toils up to Olympus’ no longer holds for us. If only we probe deep enough into the very heart of our being, there dwells something noble, something worthy of development.“