AnthroWiki:About

The aim of these pages

is a neutral and factual encyclopedic presentation of the anthroposophical spiritual science developed by Rudolf Steiner and its practical application in various areas of life. Such a work can only happen through the collaboration of many enthusiastic and knowledgeable people. Our project is based on Wiki technology, which in principle allows everyone to contribute to the further development of these pages, following the guidelines below.

Guidelines

Basis

AnthroWiki is an online encyclopaedia of anthroposophy. In order to provide a solid basis for understanding anthroposophy, the core task of AnthroWiki is to make Rudolf Steiner's work accessible in as unadulterated a form as possible. The basis of each article should therefore be formed by as complete an overview as possible of Rudolf Steiner's statements corresponding to the subject, supplemented by sparing explanations to aid understanding, but without mixing these with our own speculations and evaluations. In addition, statements by other anthroposophical authors can also be consulted, with appropriate references. Our translations of Rudolf Steiner's texts are deliberately very close to the German original. The quoted texts should be linked as far as possible with available online editions of the GA. The fact that the selection of texts and, even more so, the explanations and comments already represent an interpretation, even with the greatest care, will have to be accepted. AnthroWiki cannot replace independent study of the original texts, but can only offer assistance.

Beyond the aforementioned core task, reference should also be made to other sciences, arts and spiritual traditions, insofar as this seems objectively sensible. Any criticism or further development of Steiner's views is certainly desirable, but should be listed separately in a separate section with appropriate references.

AnthroWiki serves to present the known knowledge relevant to anthroposophy, backed up by reliable verifiable external sources. The articles of AnthroWiki are - as with any encyclopaedia - not the right place for the first publication of original new views, terms, ideas, concepts, models or methods. As desirable as these may be and as they undoubtedly represent the indispensable lifeblood of any living, evolving science, one must nevertheless take care to ensure that they can only be included in a specialised encyclopaedia once they have passed their first test in the world or at least been sufficiently noticed. In particular, our authors must not misuse Anthrowiki to spread their own theories. These can only become part of AnthroWiki if there are sufficiently researchable external secondary sources that were not written by the author of the article himself. Speculative individual opinions should not be part of the article, but can be presented in a factually justified manner on the corresponding discussion page and discussed in a respectful tone.

Authors' ownership

AnthroWiki provides a common platform for a community of independent authors who are fully responsible for the contributions they publish. The content is created collaboratively without central editorial supervision or control. Quality assurance, by means of which errors are corrected and grievances eliminated, is carried out by means of a free exchange between the authors, who are basically on an equal footing. However, the website operator expressly reserves the right to correct or delete content or works suspected of infringing copyright, exploitation rights, personal rights or other rights at any time immediately and without consultation, to block articles or to exclude individual authors from further editing of the content.

All published content is licensed under the Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) and may be freely used, edited and distributed for noncommercial private and public purposes subject to the applicable terms and conditions. A corresponding note is displayed when editing the articles and is binding for all authors. For uploaded media files (images, audio and video files, documents, etc.), different free licences may apply, which are indicated on the associated file description pages.

Neutrality and objectivity

The precept of neutrality and objectivity applies to all co-authors. This means that the concepts are initially presented in an unbiased way, without further evaluation or interpretation, as they were given by Rudolf Steiner himself and as they can be researched on the basis of the Rudolf Steiner Complete Edition published by Rudolf Steiner Verlag. Nevertheless, it will often be necessary to go beyond what is given directly by Rudolf Steiner, since anthroposophy is in a state of constant development. We only ask that such extended presentations be marked by an appropriate reference in the text. Here too, strict neutrality and objectivity must be observed; polemics of any kind are out of place in AnthroWiki.

Criticism

Of course, criticism of Steiner's statements or those of other authors can and should be voiced if necessary. However, it must be clear who is making this criticism. In all cases, care must be taken to ensure that the sources are appropriately reliable and verifiable, and that there is sufficient factual justification. Sections that do not meet these quality criteria will be deleted or moved to the discussion page for possible further opinions on the topic. In the spirit of a free intellectual life, any kind of censorship is out of place on AnthroWiki. Accordingly, even provable exotic individual opinions can be presented, but must then also be marked as such and must not give the false impression that there is a general consensus about them. Also, AnthroWiki articles are not the appropriate place to discuss controversial views - this can be done on the associated discussion page if necessary.

Violations

All contributions that violate legal norms or offend common decency will of course be deleted immediately. We are very grateful for any information about problematic or misleading passages. Articles or individual sections of articles that violate the other AnthroWiki guidelines will also be deleted immediately. Authors who repeatedly violate the AnthroWiki guidelines will have their writing privileges temporarily or permanently revoked after receiving a warning.

We think that this is the best way to serve critics and supporters of anthroposophy.

Vandalism

Vandalism, by which pages are wilfully destroyed or falsified, unfortunately happens again and again and can only be prevented by appropriate restriction of editing rights. This is the only way to guarantee the quality of AnthroWiki for our readership. We ask for your understanding that editing of the pages can therefore only be released to selected members! The original intention to make AnthroWiki completely free for editing unfortunately had to be dropped.

Collaborate

You can find out how to become an active contributor to AnthroWiki here.

With this in mind, we cordially invite you to join us.