meaning of an english sentence

Steiner was recognized as an original if unorthodox thinker.
史代納是被認同為一位原創但可能非正统的思想家。


Rudolf Steiner, the Austrian philosopher was original in approaching the philosophical questions of knowledge and freedom for example. His thinking was unorthodox in the examples of his views of Christianity which diverge from conventional Christian thoughts.

"original if unorthodox" can mean "original and unorthodox". 'if ' is used here to indicate a probability. 'Unorthodox' is not opposite to 'original', so something can be both original and unorthodox as in Steiner's thinking.


2013-04-01 18:26:23 補充：
"original if unorthodox" is an example of the pattern "A if B".
"A if B" can mean:
"A but also B", for example: "This answer is correct if not detailed enough."
"A but probably", for example: "This is an original if traditional painting." "Stein was an original if unorthodox thinker."

I agree with eicachan that "if" in "Steiner was recognized as an original if unorthodox thinker." can mean "but perhaps also". However, I think in this context the "perhaps" part is not applicable, or at least does not mean "probably", so the meaning of "if" in this sentence is more like "although":
"Steiner was recognized as an original thinker, although more specifically an unorthodox thinker."
As the use of "if" and "if not" in these kind of sentences is very complex, I can be totally wrong.

means 施泰納被認定為原來的，如果非正統思想家

2013-04-01 11:31:51 補充：
means “原來的，如果非正統”

Steiner was recognized as an original if unorthodox thinker.
Who is Steiner?
It means he is an original thinker.
unorthodox means he does not follow generally accepted beliefs.
He does not follow the traditional beliefs and practices of a religion= eg:-an orthodox Jew. If science,then current science.
All English are self-explanable.