ABSTRACT
This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part provides a historic reflection on the current paradigm of science, which is often seen placatively as the very epitome of modern thought clearly demarcated from pre-scientific forms of reasoning. In the author's analysis, such a perspective leads the scientific community to uncritically accept its own criteria as sacrosanct and to discredit any different or divergent epistemological approaches. The part then discusses and explains Steiner's epistemological concepts in detail and shows that there is hardly another pedagogy like Waldorf education, which is developed from the foundation of an explicit and thought-out epistemology satisfying strict criteria of observation and fully meeting the demand for rational transparency in continuous discourse. It also demonstrates that even complex anthroposophical core concepts of Waldorf education can be directly and stringently derived from Steiner's epistemology.
