Nationalism is one of the most powerful aspects of political life, connected with the defining conflicts of today.

This episode is dedicated to exploring the differences between nations and states, how they are

confused, and how they have come to be seen as intrinsically bound up together in recent centuries. While there

is a largely unconcious conventional notion that nations should ideally have their own states, there is a way to

look at things that reveals the opposite. It shows that the fusion of nations and states is not an ideal but a source of

conflict and the degradation of national cultureitself, and a central problem of political thoughts and life today.

References:

Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London - New York: Verso, 2006.

Gottlieb, Gidon. Nation Against State: A New Approach to Ethnic Conflicts and the Decline of Sovereignty. Council on Foreign Relations, 1993.

Jefferson, Thomas. Thomas Jefferson: Writings (LOA #17): Autobiography / Notes on the State of Virginia / Public and Private Papers / Addresses / Letters. Library of America, 1984.

Steiner, Rudolf. Towards Social Renewal: Rethinking the Basis of Society. Rudolf Steiner Press, 1999.

Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV.
To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations.

This episode explores some of author Marilynne Robinson’s thoughts about the importance of seeing people as spiritual beings and how this relates to the history of civil and political rights in North America, and especially the USA. These thoughts are connected with current tensions within both US universities and society at large, and the role that artistic education plays in being able to experience a deeper, spiritual facet of human beings.

References:

Rachel Feintzeig, (2025) Opinion | Zombies Are Better Than the Alternative. The New York Times, 25 May. Available at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/25/opinion/last-of-us-finale.html, accessed 4 June 2025.

Marilynne Robinson, (2010) Absence of Mind: Dispelling of Inwardness from the Modern Myth of the Self. (Yale University Press).

Marilynne Robinson, (2019) Which Way to the City on a Hill? The New York Review of Books. Available at https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2019/07/18/which-way-city-hill/, accessed 4 June 2025.

Rudolf Steiner(2006) Becoming the Archangel Michael’s Companions: Rudolf Steiner’s Challenge to the Younger Generation (CW 217). (SteinerBooks).

Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV.
To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations.

This episode explores challenging experiences that young people can have when they first enter college and university with enthusiasm for existential, heartfelt questions. It is not uncommon for young people to feel that the attitudes and methods they meet in the classroom and their professors cannot reach deep enough into the questions they are most passionate about and driven to explore. This can lead to disappointment and a temptation to turn away from their passions for knowledge, growth and understanding. There are, however, ideas, orientations and contemporary calls for expanding the understanding of science in ways that can accommodate the exploration of deeper questions and riddles that are not only intellectual but matters of the heart. Jeffrey Kripal’s suggestion that a new school of the “Superhumanities” is called for, as well as Hubert Dreyfuss and Charles Taylor’s ideas of Pluralist Robust Realism are introduced as examples.

References:

Hubert Dreyfus and Charles Taylor (2015) Retrieving Realism. (Harvard University Press).

William James (2008) Pluralistic Universe: Hibbert Lectures at Manchester College on the Present Situation in Philosophy. (Cambridge Scholars Publisher).

Jeffrey Kripal (2022) The Superhumanities: Historical Precedents, Moral Objections, New Realities. (University of Chicago Press).

Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV.
To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations.