The Oxford Handbook of German Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century

by Michael N Forster

  23.1 INTRODUCTION

  “THE French Revolution, Fichte’s Science of Knowledge, and Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister are the three greatest tendencies of the age,” Friedrich Schlegel remarked in Athenaeum Fragment No. 216 published in 1798.1 According to Schlegel, the revolution which put an end to feudalism in France, a treatise by his contemporary Johann Gottlieb Fichte stressing the primacy of practical over theoretical reason, and, last but not least, a famous pedagogical novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, were all signs of a major historical shift. By the time Schlegel published this particular fragment, however, many felt that the ideals of the French Revolution—including its chief slogan, liberté, égalité, fraternité—had been discredited by revolutionary violence and the turn to terror. But the generation that was raised on Rousseau and the Enlightenment and came of age at the turn of the nineteenth century could not wholly abandon their beliefs in human benevolence and perfectibility or in the possibility of autonomy and a more equitable and harmonious society. Many of Schlegel’s contemporaries were convinced that the insatiable ambitions of Napoleon Bonaparte and other political players on one hand, and the immaturity of the general public on the other, were the chief causes of the downfall of the French republic. In order to build a lasting republic, a new type of human being would first have to be created.

  Educating a new generation of politically informed and engaged citizens rather than obedient subjects became the main goal of Prussian educational reforms, which were spearheaded by polymath scholar and diplomat Wilhelm von Humboldt who became the minister of education in 1809. These reforms, which unfolded during the Napoleonic wars, testified to the world that despite military defeat and occupation the German spirit remained unbroken. Thus, while the anti-Napoleonic coalition was planning military rebuttals, a group of intellectuals in Berlin, including Wilhelm von Humboldt, Fichte, Friedrich Schleiermacher, and several others, plotted a German cultural renaissance. They saw Prussia and Germany, by analogy to Greece, as the homeland of philosophy and culture, and believed that fostering the spirit of free inquiry among the young was the key to raising genuine citizens. Such an inquiry would take place at the university, which Humboldt and his fellow reformers sought to transform from a scholastic institution where multiple generations of students were taught the same canonical subjects in the same interpretations approved by the ecclesiastic and secular authorities into a modern university where teaching is based on contemporary research and promotes further research. This vision was first put into practice at the University of Berlin founded by Humboldt and which now carries his name. The university reform, however, was only the most daring and internationally visible part of the reforms that transformed the entire state educational system, including Gymnasia, secondary, and elementary schools.2

  In the reactionary 1830s–60s a number of progressive innovations introduced by Humboldt and his colleagues were curtailed in Prussia and throughout Germany where the new educational ideals and models had been enthusiastically received and emulated. However, the intellectual impact of Humboldt’s reforms was so strong that Germany remained at the helm of pedagogical thought and experiment until the end of the nineteenth century. Moreover, in the second half of the nineteenth century Germany supplanted Switzerland, the homeland of Rousseau and Pestalozzi, as the new Mecca for educators from all over the world.3 Thomas Mann drives this point home in one of the essays where he reflects on the legacy of the German educational and cultural traditions. Thus “Goethe and Tolstoy” opens with a scene describing an encounter between an old teacher at the Weimar Gymnasium and the young Leo Tolstoy who comes to Weimar in 1861 in order to visit Goethe’s house as well as the famous Gymnasium.4

  It is hardly possible to cover a topic as vast as German education in the nineteenth century in a single chapter. Therefore, I will focus my discussion on the figures, events, and tendencies that appear particularly significant and historically influential.

  23.2 GERMAN EDUCATION IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

  At the end of the seventeenth and in the early eighteenth century, the reputation of German universities inside as well as outside Germany had fallen to a low ebb, and major intellectual figures like Leibniz5 or Lessing6 kept away from them. By the end of the eighteenth century, however, universities had regained the leading position in German intellectual life. This change originated in several newer universities, including Halle (1694), Göttingen (1737), and Erlangen (1743).

  Situated in the rising state of Brandenburg-Prussia, Halle was the first university which successfully assimilated into its curriculum modern philosophy and science. Furthermore, it implemented the new principle of freedom of thought. Until then, the principle of an approved doctrine had prevailed at Protestant as well as at Roman Catholic universities. This meant that professors had to pledge themselves to hand down a certain doctrine unaltered. This pertained first of all to theology, but also to philosophy and medicine. At Halle, however, the principle of libertas philosophandi was accepted from the first. Christian Wolff (1679–1754), the founder of the first system of modern philosophy based on mathematics and natural science, spent most of his career at Halle (with the exception of the years 1723–40 when he was at Marburg).

  Another progressive eighteenth-century university was Göttingen. Founded by the Elector of Hannover, it enjoyed close connections to England. A constant current of ideas and scholars coming from abroad, an excellent library, and a spirit of worldliness distinguished Göttingen among other German universities, making it especially popular with the aristocracy from both Germany and other countries. Such notable literary figures and classicists as J. M. Gesner (1691–1761) and C. G. Heyne (1729–1812) taught at Göttingen, making it one of the centers of literary neo-classicism and humanism. It was at Göttingen that Friedrich August Wolf, the future author of Prolegomena ad Homerum (1795), became one of the first official philology majors, having matriculated in 1779 as studiosus philologiae.7

  With the advent of the Aufklärung, the spirit of innovation and reform began to penetrate other universities. Thus, for example, in 1798 the Königsberg philosophy professor Immanuel Kant published an essay entitled “The Contest of the Faculties” in which he argued that his own university needed to be reorganized in such a way that the paramount role of the faculty of philosophy (still regarded as one of the “lower” faculties) be officially acknowledged.8 Kant argues that those faculties that by tradition were regarded as the “higher” ones were too mired in the affairs of the world. Thus the faculty of theology trained pastors whose first task was not to question the wisdom of the Bible but rather to hand it down to the people. The faculty of medicine relied on a certain body of knowledge about the human organism to train physicians. The faculty of law uncritically accepted the existing legal framework and educated students who went on to become lawyers. Only the faculty of philosophy taught students simply how to exercise their rational capacities and defend their personal autonomy.

  The fact that “The Contest of the” Faculties and Schlegel’s Athenaeum Fragment No. 216 were both published in 1798 seems not merely coincidental, but rather expresses the spirit of the age that valued autonomy above all other human goods. It is telling that one of the three greatest tendencies of this age, according to Friedrich Schlegel, was Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship (1795–6). This novel centers on a young hero who escapes from his bourgeois home in order to experience life as a self-guided quest, rather than as a fulfillment of a predestined lot. However, Wilhelm’s wanderings and adventures ultimately prove an insufficient preparation for life. In the sequel to the novel, entitled Wilhelm Meister’s Journeyman Years, Goethe’s hero acquires a profession: he becomes a surgeon. Wilhelm’s son Felix, on the other hand, already as a child benefits from the “all-around education” aimed at discovering and strengthening his individuality, which he receives in the “Pedagogical Province.”9

  Goethe’s Utopian school, where students learn different languages, receive physical training, and acqu
ire useful practical skills, embodies the ideal of all-around education, which became popular in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. This education pursued several important goals. Raising a person ready to face a modern life potentially full of challenges was only one of the pedagogical objectives. A no less important objective of the all-around education consisted in revealing each pupil’s individuality. The daring of this idea comes to the fore if we compare it to the traditional pre-modern or early modern European education. Even such far-reaching minds as Comenius (Jan Amos Komenský, 1592–1670) believed that education should first of all inculcate Christian moral virtues, give the pupil a rudimentary knowledge of reading and writing, and, finally, equip him (or, in rare cases, her) with the knowledge and skills he or she would need to fulfill their predestined role in society.10 By contrast, the new approach developed by Rousseau, Pestalozzi, and their followers assumed that each pupil was an individual capable of original thought and creativity. Rather than imparting to pupils something external to them, educators now sought to develop every child’s unique abilities. This idea was latent in John Locke, who compared the initial condition of the mind to a tabula rasa to be filled with impressions obtained through the child’s encounter with the empirical world.11 However, a real turnaround in pedagogical thought, which made the child an agent rather than a passive recipient of instruction, began to occur only in the early nineteenth century when the Pestalozzian principle of self-activity began to gain respect among theorists of education and teachers.12

  A number of philosophical and scientific advances paved the way for the revolution in pedagogy, which made the development of unique individuality the preeminent educational objective. The breakthrough I find especially relevant for the present discussion was the new theory of language advanced by Johann Gottfried Herder. In his 1772 Treatise on the Origin of Language Herder argued that language is a creation of the human race and that human thought and language are closely interconnected.13 Moreover, the former is actually bounded by the latter. In making this argument, Herder broke with the dominant assumption that meaning or thought are independent of and prior to whatever material expression they may receive in empirical usage.

  The discovery of the interconnection between human thought and language had several important ramifications for the philosophy of education, pedagogy, and the nascent discipline of psychology. First of all, the importance of the mother as the child’s first teacher and of the mother tongue as the primary vehicle of thought received their due recognition.14 Furthermore, the Enlightenment idea of education or Erziehung of the individual human being and humanity as a whole was also reconceived as an organic process linked to the linguistic and cognitive evolution of consciousness. Herder and his followers, including especially Wilhelm von Humboldt, Friedrich Schlegel, and Friedrich Schleiermacher, proposed a new ideal of self-development or Bildung. This term came to designate the process of developing one’s mind and soul through developing proficiency in languages (including both mother tongue and classical and foreign tongues) and cultures. This new conception of self-formation had a tremendous influence on the future development of the humanities in Germany and throughout the West. Moreover, a new understanding of the shape and role of the humanities gave rise to an entirely new conception of the university as well as a new approach to public education as a whole.

  23.3 “NEW HUMANISM” AND THE NEW UNIVERSITY MODEL

  “Humanism” in the traditional sense usually came down to having some proficiency in Latin, the traditional language of scholarship until almost the end of the eighteenth century. The knowledge of Latin, however, rarely transcended the most rudimentary level and rarely made one capable of appreciating Latin poetry and rhetoric. Meanwhile, the rise of Biblical criticism, coupled with the rapid development of archeology, art criticism, and aesthetics made the knowledge of ancient Greek a sine-qua-non for any cultivated person. Gradually, a new cultural ideal emerged and began to replace those of the old-fashioned scholar-Latinist or the Francophone gallant-homme. A new constellation of humanists that emerged in Weimar and the nearby Jena in the last decade of the eighteenth and the first decade of the nineteenth centuries believed that ancient languages should not be seen simply as professional or social accoutrements, but should instead foster one’s spiritual and intellectual development. According to this new ideal, instead of demanding that their pupils blindly imitate ancient models, the educators’ mission was to acquaint their pupils with the best surviving exempla of ancient art in the hope that the spirit of antiquity would enrich their pupils’ souls and enlarge their minds.

  Thus, for example, in On Grace and Dignity Schiller discusses the Greek notion of kalokagathia,15 tacitly suggesting that it should serve as an ideal for the younger generation of Germans. This Greek term describes the quality of being both beautiful (kalos) and good or noble (agathos). Like many terms that were originally coined to describe purely aristocratic virtues acquired by birth and breeding, kalokagathia eventually acquired a broader, more democratic significance. In Schiller, kalokagathia is certainly a civic virtue that not only patricians but every citizen should cultivate.16 In another work, On the Naïve and Sentimental in Literature, Schiller argues against looking at antiquity and modernity in sharply dualistic terms (as did, for example, many French thinkers).17 A modern poet can never completely rid himself of his reflective tendency and regain the “naïveté” of the ancients. However, by reading ancient authors and thus imbibing the spirit of antiquity he can transform his painful self-awareness into another, more holistic and organic mindset. “Naïve” and “sentimental” are not an either/or, but rather the terms of a productive tension for Schiller.

  For Schiller’s friend Wilhelm von Humboldt the humanist ideal became inextricably linked to his view of language as a vehicle of thought and consciousness. He believed that in order to develop fully one’s intellectual and spiritual potential a human being ought to master his or her mother tongue and the literature written in it and also remain engaged in a study of classical and foreign languages and cultures throughout one’s life. A similar vision was offered by Goethe in Wilhelm Meister’s Journeyman Years. Describing the “Pedagogical Province,” Goethe draws our attention to the multilingualism of this Utopian community. Pupils learn many different (presumably modern) languages. The custom in the province is to alternate languages on different days to make sure that students get a chance to practice their skills. Goethe’s “Pedagogical Province” illustrates his ideal of a genuinely cosmopolitan Bildung, which Goethe shared with his friend and one-time mentor Herder. Goethe upheld his cosmopolitan views even when, during and in the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars, the rise of German patriotic spirit eclipsed the cosmopolitan spirit of the Enlightenment. It is noteworthy, however, that the influence of Herder’s and Goethe’s cosmopolitan ideal has proven to be so deep and lasting that one can find their traces even in the work that is usually regarded as the foundational document of German nationalism, Fichte’s Addresses to the German Nation. Thus, for example, in section 97 of the Seventh Address, discussing the “art of the state” which depends on the level of civic maturity of its citizens, Fichte writes:

  Just as the State, in the person of its adult citizens, is the continued education of the human race, so must the future citizen himself, in the opinion of this art of the State, first be educated up to the point of being susceptible to that higher education. So this German and very modern art of the State becomes once more the very ancient art of the State, which among the Greeks founded citizenship on education and trained such citizens as succeeding ages have never seen. Henceforth the German will do what is in form the same, though in content it will be characterized by a spirit that is not narrow and exclusive, but universal and cosmopolitan.18

  Far from being merely a collection of nationalistic diatribes, Fichte’s Addresses, which he delivered before an impassioned audience in the Berlin Academy in the winter of 1807–8, contain a well thought-out program of national ed
ucation based on Pestalozzi’s principles and Fichte’s own ideas. Fichte’s lectures envision a comprehensive reform of the entire Prussian educational system beginning with the elementary schools and ending with the universities. The guiding idea of the Addresses is that, in order to reawaken Germany and rebuild the state, the old education based on mechanical memorization should be replaced by a new system, whose main goal is to inspire in each pupil a Platonic love for knowledge. Like Pestalozzi, Fichte believes that the primary goal of education is building a child’s character and ensuring that the love of learning and the will to create would, once the child grows up, transform into stable character traits. As Fichte puts it, “the new education, in fact, aims especially and directly only at stimulating regular and progressive mental activity. Knowledge (…) results only incidentally and as an inevitable consequence.”19

  The autonomy of reason, Fichte’s major theme in the Science of Knowledge, is also a central idea of his Addresses and his plan for the organization of a university in Berlin. The task of creating a new university in Brandenburg-Prussia became urgent after Halle fell to Napoleon. This project brought together a number of luminaries, including Fichte, Schleiermacher, and Wilhelm von Humboldt. All three of them were influenced by Kant’s moral and political philosophy and shared such fundamental ideals as respect for the individual and freedom of conscience and intellectual inquiry. All three believed in social equality and shared republican sentiments. Humboldt and Schleiermacher were also committed to the ideal of Bildung. I will briefly outline the main principles of each plan, following the chronological order in which they appeared.

  Fichte’ s plan was written in 1807.20 By this point Fichte was already a renowned philosopher as well as a famous professor who had written and lectured on education.21 Although Fichte’s plan in the end lost out to Humboldt’s, his ideas were extremely influential on his contemporaries including Humboldt. As a professor at Jena, Fichte also inspired several of his students, including Friedrich Froebel and Johann Friedrich Herbart, to become theorists of education and pedagogues.