The promise of Bildung —or ‘a world of one's own’

To many philosophers of education who are dissatisfied with the current value‐neutral goal‐driven technocratic curriculum, the idea of Bildung —which I conceive here in the neo‐humanist form associated with Wilhelm von Humboldt—holds great appeal. It seems to promise, on the one hand, a richer, culturally situated form of rationality, without the strong elements of cultural reproduction inherent in traditional liberal arts curricula; and on the other hand, a powerful means of critique, which makes it eminently suited to our ‘postmodern’ condition. However, much of the appeal of Bildung in its Humboldtian form only arises from its having discarded the most valuable elements in other traditions: initiation into a cultural tradition, vocational preparation and the cultivation of practical judgement. Moreover, it is destined to fail by its own standards because it has little relevance to most pupils. Bildung so conceived does not designate a universal educational ideal; rather, the outlook of a certain human type—the philosopher, scholar, artist or intellectual—whose introspective nature leads them to seek fulfilment in the life of the mind, in theoretical abstraction and aesthetic experience.