Perfecting the Individual. Wilhelm von Humboldt’s Concept of Anthropology, Bildung and Mimesis

Abstract

In the works of Wilhelm von Humboldt, education took on a new quality, focusing firmly on the importance of the individual. Bildung was to become the principle task with a view to preparing the individual for the requirements of future life. This article investigates two aspects relating to the Bildung of the individual. First, the significance of Humboldt’s outline of a ‘comparative anthropology’ for historico-educational anthropology; second, Humboldt’s idea of the connection between Bildung and mimesis. The following sets of relations will play a central role in the pursuit of these themes: the relationship between the individual and society, between old and new, between reality and the powers of imagination, between the inner and outer realms, the particular and the general, that which is historical as opposed to universal. To analyse these themes and problems, we shall pay close attention to some of Humboldt’s earlier works. The ‘Plan for a Comparative Anthropology’ , written in 1797, forms a fundamental part of Humboldt’s anthropology. This also applies to his text entitled ‘On the Human Spirit’ from the same year, which is of particular importance for educational theory, which supplements the essay ‘Theory of Human Bildung' (1794/95). ‘The Sphere and Duties of Government’ (1792), is similarly relevant to our aims. These works contain many of the origins of Humboldt’s later thought.