Prof. Dr. Leonhard Weiss

1986 – 1997 // Rudolf Steiner School Vienna-Mauer

1997 – 1998 // Federal Upper Secondary Realgymnasium Vienna I.1998 – 1999: Civilian service at the Karl Schubert School, Vienna2000 – 2010 // (Online) editor in the religion department of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation ORF2000 – 2004 // Study of philosophy/combination of subjects (political science, journalism and communication studies, history, economics) at the University of Vienna2004 – 2010 // Doctoral studies in philosophy at the University of Vienna 2009 – 2012 // Study of Waldorf education at Danube University Krems since 2010 // Upper school teacher for philosophy, history and civic education at Austrian Waldorf schools

2010 – 2014 // Research associate and lecturer at the Center for Culture and Pedagogy, Vienna

since 2013 // Member of the program leadership of the Master’s program “Waldorf Education” at Danube University Kremssince March 2014 // Junior Professor of Philosophy of Education and Pedagogical Anthropology at Alanus University of Arts and Social Sciences (Center for Culture and Pedagogy, Vienna)

Monographs

Individuality and Recognition. Educational-philosophical Perspectives of Waldorf Education. A Foundation, Vienna: LIT Verlag, 2020.

“A Cultural Education Oriented Toward Trust”. On the Significance of Trust in Rudolf Steiner’s Philosophy and Pedagogy, Vienna: LIT Verlag, 2015

Hegel’s Philosophy of History and Modern Europe, Berlin, Vienna: LIT Verlag, 2012

Edited volumes

Leonhard Weiss, Carlo Willmann (eds.): Waldorf School Experiences. A Survey of Former Pupils. Vienna: LIT Verlag, 2021.

Thomas Krobath, Leonhard Weiss, Carlo Willmann (eds.): Meaning-Formation through Encountering the World. Challenges and Fields of Action for Waldorf Education in the 21st Century. Vienna: LIT Verlag, 2021.

Leonhard Weiss & Carlo Willmann (eds.): Being and Becoming. Contributions to the Understanding of Development in Waldorf Education, Vienna: LIT Verlag, 2021.

Edwin Hübner & Leonhard Weiss (eds.): Resonance and Quality of Life. Relations to the World in Times of Digitalization. Educational Perspectives, Opladen / Berlin / Toronto: Verlag B. Budrich, 2020.

Leonhard Weiss & Carlo Willmann (eds.): Interest – Initiative – Intuition. On the Teacher Image in Waldorf Education, Vienna: LIT Verlag, 2018.

Edwin Hübner & Leonhard Weiss (eds.): Personhood in School and Teacher Education. Perspectives in Times of Economization and Digitalization, Budrich, 2017

Leonhard Weiss & Carlo Willmann (eds.): Learning Oriented Toward Meaning. Shaping with Open Outcomes. On the Understanding of Achievement in Waldorf Education. Waldorf Education. Positions_Practice_Perspectives, issue 2017, Vienna: LIT Verlag, forthcoming 2017.

Leonhard Weiss & Carlo Willmann (eds.): Foundations, Methods and Form of the Waldorf School. Current Work from the Research Colloquium Vienna Dialogues. Waldorf Education. Positions_Practice_Perspectives, issue 2016, Vienna: LIT Verlag, 2016.

Leonhard Weiss & Carlo Willmann (ed.): The Educator’s View of the Human Being. Papers for a Congress of Educational Science of the European Network of Academic Steiner Teacher Education, May 2013, Vienna. RoSE Research on Steiner Education, Vol 5/Special issue, August 2014, http://www.rosejourn.com/index.php/rose/article/view/217/225

Articles 

Leonhard Weiss: On the Way to “Full Reality”… Reflections on the Challenges of Contemporary Waldorf Upper School Teaching, in: Hübner, Edwin/Lutzker, Peter (eds.): Education, Body, Pedagogy. Anthropological and Phenomenological Approaches for Contemporary Youth Education. Stuttgart: Edition waldorf, 2024, pp.49-66.

Leonhard Weiss: Recognition. Educational-Philosophical Implications and Consequences of a Hegelian Concept, in: Bowmann, Brady / Gerhard; Myriam / Zovko, Jure (eds.): Know Thyself – Anthropological Perspectives II. Supplementary Volume to the Hegel Yearbook 2018, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2024, pp. 933-940.

Leonhard Weiss: Steiner’s Hypothesis of the ‘Sense of I’. A Contribution to a Heuristic Reading of Waldorf Educational Anthropology, in: Steiner Studies, Vol. 4, 2023; online: https://steiner-studies.org/articles/10.12857/STS.951000440-16

Leonhard Weiss: The “Leap” of Thinking. On the Significance of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s Philosophy of Spirit for Rudolf Steiner, in: Schieren, Jost (ed.): The Philosophical Sources of Anthroposophy. Frankfurt/Main: Info3 Verlag, 2022, pp. 153-189.

Leonhard Weiss: Through Becoming-Other… Reflections on an Aspect of the Relationship between “Development” and “Education” in Waldorf Education, in: Weiss, L./Willmann, C. (eds.): Being and Becoming. Contributions to the Understanding of Development in Waldorf Education, Vienna: LIT Verlag, 2021, pp. 45-66.

Leonhard Weiss: Self-Knowledge through “Interest in the Other.” A Contribution to Quality of Life. Social and Educational-Philosophical Reflections Following Rudolf Steiner, in: Hübner, E./Weiss, L. (eds.): Resonance and Quality of Life. Educational Perspectives in a Digitalized World, Opladen / Berlin / Toronto: Verlag Barbara Budrich, 2020, pp. 107-142.

Leonhard Weiss: The Question of “Early Recognition”, in: Buchhammer, B. (ed.): Freedom – Justice – Love. Festschrift for the 75th Birthday of Herta Nagl-Docekal, Vienna: LIT Verlag, 2019, pp.207-224.

Leonhard Weiss: “Achievement” between Standardization and Individualism. An Attempt at a Labor-Theoretical (Re-)Construction of a Waldorf Educational Concept of Achievement, in: Weiss, L./Willmann, C. (eds.): Learning Oriented Toward Meaning – Shaping with Open Outcomes. On the Understanding of Achievement in Waldorf Education, Vienna: LIT Verlag, 2018, pp. 125-140.

Leonhard Weiss: The Human Being – “A Beginner”: Anthropological Foundations and Current Relevance of Hannah Arendt’s Understanding of Childhood and Education, in: Buchhammer, B. (ed.): Re-Learning to be Human in Global Times: Challenges and Opportunities from the Perspectives of Contemporary Philosophy and Religion, Washington DC: The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, 2018, pp. 111-120.

Leonhard Weiss: The Teacher’s “Secret Fundamental Forces” Reflections on Elements of a “Waldorf Educational Esotericism”, in: Weiss, L./Willmann, C. (eds.): Interest – Initiative – Intuition. On the Teacher Image in Waldorf Education, Vienna: LIT Verlag, 2018, pp. 71-86.

Leonhard Weiss: “…to have an authority beside oneself.” Recognition-theoretical Reflections on the Understanding of Authority in Waldorf Education, in: Hübner, E./Weiss, L. (eds.): Personhood in School and Teacher Education. Perspectives in Times of Economization and Digitalization, Opladen / Berlin / Toronto: Verlag Barbara Budrich, 2017, pp. 189-208.

Leonhard Weiss: Individuality through Intersubjectivity. On the Anthropology of a Theory of Recognition and its Educational-Philosophical Consequences, in: Andreas Oberprantacher & Anne Siegetsleitner (eds.): Being Human – Foundation, Imperative or Empty Phrase? Contributions to the 10th International Congress of the Austrian Society for Philosophy in Innsbruck, innsbruck university press, 2017

Leonhard Weiss: “…to have an authority beside oneself.” Recognition-theoretical Reflections on the Understanding of Authority in Waldorf Education, in: Edwin Hübner & Leonhard Weiss (eds.): Personhood in School and Teacher Education. Perspectives in Times of Economization and Digitalization, Budrich, 2017, pp. 189-210

Leonhard Weiss: Initiative and Trust. Educational Goals and Philosophical Foundations of Waldorf Education, in: Weiss, L. / Willmann, C. (eds.): Foundations, Methods and Form of the Waldorf School. Current Work from the Research Colloquium Vienna Dialogues. Waldorf Education. Positions_Practice_Perspectives, issue 2016, Vienna: LIT Verlag, 2016, pp. 97-108

Leonhard Weiss: The Relevance of Recognition-Theoretical Reflections for the Waldorf Educational Approach to Age-Appropriate Education, in: Weiss, L. / Willmann, C. (ed.): TRANSFORMATIONS. Bildung in einer sich wandelnden Welt/Education in a Rapidly-Changing World. Papers for a Congress of Educational Science of the European Network of Academic Steiner Teacher Education, May 2015, Vienna. RoSE Research on Steiner Education, Vol 6/Special issue, December 2015, http://www.rosejourn.com/index.php/rose/article/view/268/262

Leonhard Weiss: Trust. The Philosophical Foundation of a Central Concept of (Waldorf) Educational Practice, in: Weiss, L. / Willmann, C. (ed.): The Educator’s View of the Human Being. Papers for a Congress of Educational Science of the European Network of Academic Steiner Teacher Education, May 2013, Vienna. RoSE Research on Steiner Education, Vol 5/Special issue, August 2014, http://www.rosejourn.com/index.php/rose/article/view/206/215

Indeterminate Responsibility? On the Philosophical Foundations and Educational Perspectives of “Responsibility,” presented at the 4th Waldorf Summer Academy: “Shaping the Future. Living Responsibility”, Vienna, 7–11 July 2025

Directing—and perceiving—the gaze of the other. “Joint attention” as a central phenomenon of personal learning, presented at the 5th INASTE Congress “Human Intelligence”, 22–24 May 2025.

“There is no work. There are communal tasks.” Goals of a living pedagogy, presented at the 3rd Waldorf Summer Academy: “Living Learning”, Vienna, 8–12 July 2024

At school, all people are students. On the self-understanding of Waldorf education, presented at Rudolf Steiner School Vienna-Mauer, 26 May 2024

Building Trust. On the human science of a fundamental social motif; together with Tobias Richter, presented at the school year preparation of Austrian Waldorf teachers, Litschau, 10–14 July 2017

‘The Human Being – A Beginner’. The Anthropological Foundations and Current Relevance of Hannah Arendt’s Understanding of Childhood and Education, presented at the symposium “Learning to be Human for Global Times: Challenges and Opportunities from the Perspective of Contemporary Philosophy of Religion”, Vienna, 7–8 March 2017

“Newcomers” who bring the revolutionary—and need the conservative. On Hannah Arendt’s understanding of childhood and education; presented at the workshop “What is a child?” of the network “Philosophy and Childhood” as part of the 4th Conference for Practical Philosophy, Salzburg, 29–30 Sept. 2016

Recognition. Educational-philosophical Implications and Consequences of a Hegelian Concept; presented at the 31st International Hegel Congress “Know Thyself – Anthropological Perspectives”, Bochum, 17–20 May 2016.

Development in Relationship. On the Educational-Philosophical Relevance and Contemporary Significance of a Theory of Recognition; presented at the 3rd Conference for Practical Philosophy, Salzburg, 1–2 October 2015

Individuality through Intersubjectivity. On the Anthropology of a Theory of Recognition and its Educational-Philosophical Consequences; presented at the 10th Congress of the Austrian Society for Philosophy “Being Human – Foundation, Imperative or Empty Phrase?”, Innsbruck 2015, 4–6 June 2015

Development in Recognition. On the Relevance of Recognition-Theoretical Reflections for the Waldorf Educational Approach to Age-Appropriate Education; presented at the 3rd ENASTE Congress: “Transformations. Education in a Rapidly-Changing World”, Vienna, 14–16 May 2015

– “Aspects of Being Human. Discussion of the Pedagogical Anthropology of Waldorf Education in the Context of Current Discourses on Digitalized Late Modernity”

– Education in Recognition. On the Significance of a Theory of Recognition for the pedagogical anthropology of Waldorf education.