The Faculties of the Mind in Waldorf Education: the Epistemological Foundations of the Theory for the Enlightenment of the Practice

Waldorf Education's spiritual view of the human being, and of the child in particular, clearly distinguishes it from other progressive educational movements. This distinction necessarily comes to the fore in teacher training. One of the pillars of the education based on Steiner's philosophy is the threefold nature of the human being: the founder of the pedagogy believed that there are three active faculties in every student — thinking, feeling, and willing — which develop gradually and progressively, passing through a seven-year stage until they are fully activated at the age of 21. The sources of this theory are obviously esoteric and spiritual, although it is possible to draw parallels between this doctrine and other theories of the child’s development that also involve several stages until the full development of all faculties.

At the same time, the roots of this conception can be found in Steiner’s philosophical period. I would thus like to return to the origins of these ideas in the writings of the young Steiner and to their roots in the philosophical tradition, as well as to address the question of the shift in epistemology that occurred in Steiner's work between the 1890s and the 1920s, particularly with regard to the theory of faculties. This work is based on my doctoral dissertation defended in 2025 at the University of Upper Alsace (Mulhouse, France), which seeks to articulate the philosophy of education on which Waldorf education is based. I will offer for discussion some findings regarding the role of the other faculties in the pedagogy, as well as the changes in the concept of thinking in Steiner's later work. This will provide a better understanding of the meaning of the intellect and intellectual education in the pedagogy based on Rudolf Steiner's conception of the human being.