Rudolf Steiner Audio CW 170 The Riddle of Humanity: Lecture 1 (Dornach, 29 July 1916) by Rudolf Steiner
Oct 6, 2026
Rudolf Steiner explores humanity’s spiritual future through architecture, self-knowledge, and the hidden forces shaping destiny. He examines Otto Weininger’s troubled genius, theories of masculine and feminine nature, distorted imagination, and the tension between spiritual insight and intellectual confusion. The talk also considers incarnation, suicide, death, and spiritual science as a path through modern inner turmoil.
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When Nervousness Became A Badge Of Genius
- Steiner describes decadence as a fashionable identity in which nervousness signaled sophistication and calmness suggested Philistinism.<br>- He introduces Otto Weininger as an unusually vivid example of this contemporary type.
Weininger’s Mathematical Theory Of Human Character
- Weininger rejects two fixed sexes and describes every person as a mixture of masculine M and feminine W characteristics.<br>- He then applies this binary mixture mathematically to individual character and history.
A Controversial Typology Built From M And W
- Weininger ranks people by the amount of W or M they supposedly contain, labeling women as mothers or heteras and men by their capacity for guilt.<br>- Steiner presents the scheme as a revealing example of distorted contemporary thinking.
