Aesthetic Education
Art, Ecological Consciousness and Associative Economics
From August, 2025 through April, 2026, Ashton Arnoldy joined Nathaniel Williams for a post-doctoral research project through the Youth Section at the Goetheanum in Switzerland titled “An Aesthetic Education for the Anthropocene: Art, Ecological Consciousness and Associative Economics”. This involved explorations of how Schiller’s notion of aesthetic education, Goethe’s delicate empiricism and Rudolf Steiner’s associative economics relate to pressing issues today.
Before coming to the Goetheanum, Ashton completed his PhD on Owen Barfield’s portrayal of the evolution of consciousness and Barfield's connection to anthroposophy. Nathaniel and Ashton conducted a public conversation about key ideas from the last months of work, a forthcoming book resulting it from it, and how it all relates to Barfield’s approach to anthroposophy and his presentation of the evolution of consciousness.
Stay tuned for a forthcoming book on the topic.