Dreigliederung cont'd

Paraphrasing can, indeed, be an indispensable device to explain a term which may not be immediately clear and to avoid too much repetition. However, I would suggest that 'threefold social order' should not be rejected categorically since it gives a concise idea of what is being talked about (where '(social) threefolding', for instance, would need more of an explanation). While it is certainly true that Dreigliederung refers to a 'direction of development', a way of doing things, I would question whether the term 'social order' - and 'order' is presumably the word that gives offense here - necessarily always excluded that idea.

Steiner himself was content to use the term in precisely this context. In 1924 he told young people: Wenn wir uns in the alte Welt einleben, dann sehen wir: wir leben nicht etwa in den drei Gliedern der Weltordnung, die bei der Dreigliederung angegeben worden sind. (In Die Erkenntnis-Aufgabe der Jugend GA 217a, Dornach 1981, p. 182.)

A further suggestion: 'threefold society', along the lines of capitalist or communist society, might a be suitable alternative under certain circumstances where the context is clear.

Christian von Arnim