The Rudolf Steiner Archive

This volume is a translation of Die Rätsel der Philosophie (Vol. 18 in the Bibliographic Survey, 1961).

This translation has been authorized for the Western Hemisphere by the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach, Switzerland.

The full title of this book is, The Riddles of Philosophy Presented in an Outline of Its History. It is not a “history of philosophy,” although the approach is historical. It is a review of historical and present-day world conceptions. Originally, this work appeared in two volumes in the German language. The first English edition appeared in 1973 and is bound as one volume.

Together with Truth and Science and The Philosophy of Freedom, it could be considered as one third of a philosophical trilogy.

• Introduction
• Preface to the 1923 Edition
• Preface to the 1918 Edition
• Preface to the 1914 Edition

PART I

1. Guiding Thoughts on the Method of Presentation
2. The World Conception of the Greek Thinkers
3. Thought Life from the Beginning of the Christian Era to John Scotus Erigena
4. The World Conceptions of the Middle Ages
5. The World Conceptions of the Modern Age of Thought Evolution
6. The Age of Kant and Goethe
7. The Classics of World and Life Conception
8. Reactionary World Conceptions
9. The Radical World Conceptions

PART II

1. Introductory Remarks to the 1914 Edition
2. The Struggle Over the Spirit
3. Darwinism and World Conception
4. The World as Illusion
5. Echoes of the Kantian Mode of Conception
6. World Conceptions of Scientific Factuality
7. Modern Idealistic World Conceptions
8. Modern Man and His World Conception
9. A Brief Outline of an Approach to Anthroposophy