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The Four Temperaments: 1 lecture, Berlin, March 4, 1909 (CW 57)
Between individual characteristics and those of the human race in general lie the four main groups of human temperaments: phlegmmatic, sanguine, melancholic, and choleric. Rudolf Steiner describes how each person's combination of temperaments is shaped out of a particular kind of union between hereditary factors and the inner spiritual nature. Telling descriptions are provided for the inwardly comfortable phlegmatic, the fickle interest of the sanguine, the pained and gloomy melancholic, and the fiery, assertive choleric. Steiner also offers practical suggestions for guiding the temperaments educationally in childhood and for adult self-improvement.
59 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
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About the author
Rudolf Steiner
4,323 books1,098 followersAuthor also wrote under the name Rudolph Steiner.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as a literary critic and published works including The Philosophy of Freedom. At the beginning of the twentieth century he founded an esoteric spiritual movement, anthroposophy, with roots in German idealist philosophy and theosophy. His teachings are influenced by Christian Gnosticism or neognosticism. Many of his ideas are pseudoscientific. He was also prone to pseudohistory.
In the first, more philosophically oriented phase of this movement, Steiner attempted to find a synthesis between science and spirituality. His philosophical work of these years, which he termed "spiritual science", sought to apply what he saw as the clarity of thinking characteristic of Western philosophy to spiritual questions, differentiating this approach from what he considered to be vaguer approaches to mysticism. In a second phase, beginning around 1907, he began working collaboratively in a variety of artistic media, including drama, dance and architecture, culminating in the building of the Goetheanum, a cultural centre to house all the arts. In the third phase of his work, beginning after World War I, Steiner worked on various ostensibly applied projects, including Waldorf education, biodynamic agriculture, and anthroposophical medicine.
Steiner advocated a form of ethical individualism, to which he later brought a more explicitly spiritual approach. He based his epistemology on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's world view in which "thinking…is no more and no less an organ of perception than the eye or ear. Just as the eye perceives colours and the ear sounds, so thinking perceives ideas." A consistent thread that runs through his work is the goal of demonstrating that there are no limits to human knowledge.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as a literary critic and published works including The Philosophy of Freedom. At the beginning of the twentieth century he founded an esoteric spiritual movement, anthroposophy, with roots in German idealist philosophy and theosophy. His teachings are influenced by Christian Gnosticism or neognosticism. Many of his ideas are pseudoscientific. He was also prone to pseudohistory.
In the first, more philosophically oriented phase of this movement, Steiner attempted to find a synthesis between science and spirituality. His philosophical work of these years, which he termed "spiritual science", sought to apply what he saw as the clarity of thinking characteristic of Western philosophy to spiritual questions, differentiating this approach from what he considered to be vaguer approaches to mysticism. In a second phase, beginning around 1907, he began working collaboratively in a variety of artistic media, including drama, dance and architecture, culminating in the building of the Goetheanum, a cultural centre to house all the arts. In the third phase of his work, beginning after World War I, Steiner worked on various ostensibly applied projects, including Waldorf education, biodynamic agriculture, and anthroposophical medicine.
Steiner advocated a form of ethical individualism, to which he later brought a more explicitly spiritual approach. He based his epistemology on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's world view in which "thinking…is no more and no less an organ of perception than the eye or ear. Just as the eye perceives colours and the ear sounds, so thinking perceives ideas." A consistent thread that runs through his work is the goal of demonstrating that there are no limits to human knowledge.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 25, 2025
El intento de estructurar alrededor de una teoría de la mente lo que parecen notas sueltas es fragilísimo. ¡Y eso que la teoría propuesta parece tener potencial! La editorial antroposófica debería reeditar las obras de Steiner en una recopilación que tenga mayor sentido práctico, mayor carácter didáctico y ejemplos actualizados.
November 23, 2025
Interessante come opera, non di facilissima comprensione secondo me. Necessità di una lettura con calma e non troppo frettolosa.
December 29, 2015
Temperament can be defined as the two streams (heredity [our present life] and reincarnation [our past lives]) combining to give our personality "special coloring".
4 basic temperaments:
1. Choleric
2. Sanguine
3. Phlegmatic
4. Melancholic
Each person is a combination of different temperaments, with one temperament being dominant.
"It is one of life's important tasks to direct and guide the temperaments. But to carry this out properly we need to observe one basic principle: always to work with what is there, not with what is not".
We cannot change our temperament. We must accept our innate temperament and then we can learn to display it under the right circumstances. For example "Melancholics should not close their eyes to life's pain but rather seek it out; should feel compassion to redirect their suffering outwards".
4 basic temperaments:
1. Choleric
2. Sanguine
3. Phlegmatic
4. Melancholic
Each person is a combination of different temperaments, with one temperament being dominant.
"It is one of life's important tasks to direct and guide the temperaments. But to carry this out properly we need to observe one basic principle: always to work with what is there, not with what is not".
We cannot change our temperament. We must accept our innate temperament and then we can learn to display it under the right circumstances. For example "Melancholics should not close their eyes to life's pain but rather seek it out; should feel compassion to redirect their suffering outwards".
May 8, 2013
Rudolf Steiner can be difficult to read. Once you start to read though the book transforms you. This book is very helpful in defining the temperaments. If you study human personality at all I highly recommend you read this book.
December 28, 2013
Hard work to read. Interesting but not gripping
January 6, 2016
Incredibly insightful, but I wish Steiner offered more depth in defining each of the temperaments.
February 19, 2024
Not my cup of tea.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews