The General Anthroposophical Section is both the starting point and the center of the School of Spiritual Science. Here a foundation is laid step by step for all branches of spiritual research. The three core subjects are: anthroposophical study of the human being; evolution and history of humanity; and the science of initiation. These fields cover the broad outlines of Anthroposophy. In 1924 Rudolf Steiner developed a course of study based on meditative exercises that lead «the spiritual in the human being to the spiritual in the universe.» This is the basis for the work of the School of Spiritual Science. It is also the background of the research, teaching, and training activities of the General Anthroposophical Section.
The work of the Section for Mathematics and Astronomy includes qualitative investigations into measure, number and weight, studies on the morphology of the starry sky and its constellations, cosmological study of man and rhythm research. Particular importance is attached to projective geometry as the foundation of a new morphology and physics. Research on correspondences between the macrocosm and microcosm and on the place of the human being in this context draw the Section into close collaboration with the pedagogical, medical and agricultural fields.
The Medical Section devotes itself to medical and pharmaceutical research as well as to training and continuing education of physicians, pharmacists and therapists. Faced with the pathogenic aspects of modern life, it supports «culturally therapeutic» causes, methodological plurality in scientific discourse, patient's right to choose, and the legal battle for complementary medicine. In its collaborative work with the artistic and scientific sections, two core questions of anthroposophical medicine are central: How does health arise? What is the nature of disease and healing?
By the beginning of the twentieth century, science – ecology, biology, physics, chemistry – began hitting its own limits. The task of the Natural Science Section is to push beyond these limits, to explore further, to set out from new premises leading to new results and capacities. The foundation for its work is the scientific method developed by Goethe and further developed by Steiner. The key question: Can we, by honoring the appearances of the phenomena, reach a scientific understanding that is true to the living world, its supersensible dimensions and its specific life connections?
