Hans Gadamer was not desirous to study humanity as it is, neither was he interested to apply on it empirical methods which have adapted from the physical sciences. It was his great desire to discover what humanity could be. For Gadamer, Bildung is the properly human way of developing one’s natural talents and capacities. The term has some fragrance and flavor of the late 18th and 19th centuries. This had played a pivotal and significant role through German-speaking Europe. We also see that within the Bildung is the root word Bild, form, image and more peculiarly picture.
Naveed H. Sandeelo
The very concept of Bildung quite vividly points towards the profound intellectual change which happened in the German poet and writer Goethe’s century which seems contemporary to us as compare to baroque era which appears to us too remote. The concepts we are well acquainted and which are being used in the creative arts and intellectual world such as art, history, experience, the creative, symbol, style, external world, expression contain treasure of history. The role of Bildung is essential in human sciences. According to Gadamer our preceding investigation renders us the historical background of the word. It originated in medieval mysticism, it continued in baroque’s mysticism, and it got its religious spirituality in Klopstock’s Messiah, where it influenced over the whole period. Herder gives its basic definition as rising up of humanity through culture. In the 19th century, we find the cult Bildung preserved the profound dimension. Now this word has adapted its new structure which is intimately associated with the idea of culture and shapes essentially the peculiarly human way of elevating one’s natural capacities and talents. Thus we can say without any hesitation that Bildung cultivates person’s innate capabilities in proper way and moving progressively towards universal consciousness. We see in Kant that he did not use the word Bildung regarding this sense. And he spoke of cultivating a capacity or natural talent. But contrary to Kant, this was used by Hegel where he made use of the idea of duties to oneself and already spoke of educating and cultivating oneself and Bildung. Except Hegel, another thinker is Wilhelm Von Humbolt who already differentiated between Kulture and Bildung. In this connection he said that when we say Bildung in our language, we intent to say something higher and profoundly inward.
While looking profoundly at the very concept of Hans Gadamer’s Bildung, we find that he does not use Bildung in the sense of culture which means to develop only one’s talents and capacities. Instead of this he used Bildung in the sense of ancient mystical tradition in which man seems to carry in his soul the image of God, after whom he is fashioned, and which man must cultivate in himself. In the Latin language the word formatio is equivalent for Bildung, thus we have some other words such as form and formation. Bildung like prevalent use of German word formation further explains the concept of the becoming process rather than the process itself. What actually result comes of Bildung, its transition is clear and here manner of technical construction is not used. It develops an inner process of cultivation and formation and thus it permanently remain in a condition of continual Bildung. Therefore, in this connection, we may say further Bildung is not something like a technique to be learned or mastered, nor does it is striving towards any king of goal; it is a continual way of being in the world. It has no end other than itself. It is not happen accidently but in this regard this word of Bildung seems to equate with the Greek word physis. As nature has no goal outside itself, Bildung’s nature is same like that nature. It must be noted clearly that Bildung cannot be called a goal, as mentioned above, neither it be sought in any sense. As we already know well that it has no goals outside itself, its (Bildung’s) concept transcends the simple cultivation or formation of given talents, the root cause of development of its concept. As we see the means of cultivation of talent is not apart from the something given, therefore practicing and cultivating are considered just means to an end. Our observation tells us that apparently everything which is gained is absorbed but in Bildung this is not observed neither that lose its function nor through which one is formed and fully becomes one’s own. Thus in acquainted Bildung not anything disappears but everything can be found preserved. In this sense we strongly accept and reach to this point that Bildung is a genuine and real historical idea. Due to this historical character it is essential to consider its significance for understanding in the human sciences.
While looking at the linguistic history of Bildung we find that the word makes us acquaintance with the circle of historical ideas. These were first introduced to us by German philosopher Frederick Hegel in the domain of first philosophy. In real sense he worked out astutely what Bildung is. In this way he saw that philosophy, we may include, the human sciences, Geisteswissenschaften has the condition of its existence in Bildung. Geist or spirit has significant linkage with the very idea of Bildung. The rational and intellectual side of man’s nature requires him to break with what is immediate and the natural. He is characterized for this action to restrain oneself with the immediate. This is the demand of Bildung to overcome one’s desires or pleasures. One only can be able to cultivate universal awareness when he will gain freedom from the object of desire. Man is what he develops within himself this is rational demand and the intellectual requirement. By nature, in this sphere he is not that what he must be, for this he is needed Bildung. Hegel believed that Bildung’s formal nature depended on its university. In the concept of rising to the universal, as Hegel believes, one is not merely limited to the theoretical Bildung. This should not also be taken opposite to a practical. It covers the essential character of human rationality as a whole. One has to contribute something in his life in the way of practice. Being a universal intellectual being it is human Bildung’s universal nature to constitute itself. One should over come to his particularity and should not abandon to it. If he does so he is not constituted. For Hegel such type of person is deprived in the strength of distraction. He is confined enough within himself and do not seek to turn his gaze towards universal. Then what is real task of someone? For elevating towards the universal, Bildung is a task for him. For the sake of the universal Bildung requires particularity must be sacrificed. But peculiarly sacrificing means one has to struggle for controlling one’s desire and get salvation from its object and make completely free from its objectivity. We find this in Hegel’s unique philosophical work “Phenomenology of spirit” where he worked out scholarly the genesis of a really a free self-consciousness “in-and-for-itself” here he also shows us the work’s essence is to form the thing instead of consume it. As an independent consciousness working consciousness again finds itself. The activity is restrained desire. Being selflessly active and related with a universal working consciousness elevates and invigorates itself above the immediacy of its existence towards universality. In Hegelian concept by forming thing it also forms itself. This process is mostly seen in the case of original poets and genuine philosophers. They struggle, for forming their being, to incorporate the ingredients of their soul and perchance the all the veils of prevailing knowledge. While acquiring a capacity and skill he gains the sense of himself. Someone become capable to fully recognize the meaning of his existence. Hence all the elements are seen, which are required for making up practical Bildung, contained in the self-awareness of working consciousness. The practical Bildung demands us to remain aloof from the immediate world of desires and pleasures, personal interests and personal needs and demands us for rising towards universality. This is the gist of Bildung here. In the explanation of practical Bildung by Hegel we can recognize the historical spirit’s basic character which means to reunite to perceive oneself in another being. Now question arises what is the essential function of theoretical Bildung? The answer is that it actually exceeds foremost man’s immediate experiences and knowledge. Thus individual person who upraise himself from his natural being to the domain of spirituality he finds in custom, language and institutions of his natives among which he learns to speak, makes his own self. Now I turn to another distinguished thinker Helmholtz who is also important and interesting in this regard. When he gives his description regarding the work of human sciences and what he calls artistic feeling and tact, actually he presupposes the element of Bildung, where the human mind has an unbound movability. Helmholtz speaks about the readiness and connects the flow of most variegate of experience into the memory of the philologist and historian. The concept of memory using by him is not enough for explaining here. In this regard we cannot rightly understand the nature of memory if it is just taken as simply a common capacity or talent. The very nature of forgetting and recalling are connected with the historical contribution of man and these are part and parcel of his Bildung and history. For example, one can keep something in memory and cannot keep other, one desires to keep one thing in the memory and delete another. We can say that is also nearly related to remembering and keeping in mind. As Frederick Nietzsche indicated and called it a condition of the mind. Through the process of forgetting mind can be able to fully refresh it and can develop a capability to look everything in the world with new eyes.
Helmholtz speaks about the tact, actually it is not merely exactly alike the phenomenon of manners and customs. The role of the tact in the human sciences is merely unconsciousness and a feeling but it is way of cognizance and of being. What Helmholtz calls tact actually includes Bildung and is a function of both aesthetic and historical Bildung. If any person becomes capable to depend on one’s tact in work regarding human sciences one must first have a sense for the historical and the aesthetics. A person of an aesthetic sense is able to differentiate what is ugly and beautiful, lower and higher quality. A person who has developed within himself historical sense is aware enough what is possible for an age, what is not. We can see the otherness of the past with respect to the present. What makes the human sciences into sciences can be understood are easily from the tradition of concept of Bildung rather than from the modern idea of scientific method. The modern concept of science is insufficient for this humanistic study. Thus we see in fact the human sciences of 19th century drew their own life from the survival of the humanistic idea of Bildung. We must turn to the humanistic tradition which resists to the modern science’s claims and gains its new importance and significance in the contemporary world. We can say its importance is also more than mathematics.
Conclusion
After whole intellectual debate of Hans Gadamer about the concept of Bildung and its essential importance in human life, becoming conceptual rich, we reach this conclusion that:
- The human sciences into sciences can be understood more easily from the tradition of the concept of Bildung rather than from the modern of scientific method.
- We became clear about the guiding concepts of Bildung in the culture’s sense; including the concept of self-formation, education and cultivation.
- We learned a lot from Hegel’s ideas about the universal nature of human Bildung, also the concept of difference between theoretical and practical Bildung. In Wilhelm von Humboldt we were introduced the new aspects of tact, memory, aesthetic and historical Bildung.
- In Herder we saw human cultivation where we learned this concept that more than any person he transcended the perfectionism of the enlightenment with his new ideal of cultivating the human (Bildung zum Menschen). Thus he prepared the basis for the growth of historical sciences in the 19th
Bibliography
Gadamer, H.-G. (2008). Philosophical Hermeneutics. London: University of California Press.
Gadamer, H.-G. (2004). Truth and Method. London: Continuum.
Grondin, J. (1994). Introduction to philosophical Hermeneutics. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.