Das Seminar ist ein englischsprachiger international course, der am IUC in Dubrovnik stattfindet. Für die Reisekosten können Zuschüsse beantragt werden. Bei Interesse bitte direkt mit mir Kontakt aufnehmen.

Philosophical reflection on Nature, Culture and “Bildung” is indispensable for attaining an adequate understanding of the task of education and the challenges facing educational systems today. Education and philosophy come to be in response to a universal human need – and the ideals toward which they aim are correspondingly universal. In this period of political, economic and ecological crisis, when technological and scientific advances alone have proven incapable of resolving the most pressing issues confronting humankind, the topic of education and culture has emerged as one of central importance. The present emphasis on competencies and marketability is opposed to traditional ideals of paideia and Bildungandderails indispensable aspects of the formation of the human personality like cultivation of aesthetic and artistic ability, and forms of metaphorical, analogical and symbolic expression which contribute to them. These contribute tocomplex processes of understanding, problem-solving, and communication essential to critical and creative thinking, anddepend for their proper development and encouragement on study of cultural heritage. Neglect of these aspects of culture and education tend, on the other hand, to undermine the goal of promoting innovativeness and creativity.

Since the appearance of Socrates on the stage of human history, the task of philosophy has been inseparably bound to the task of education. Philosophy is fundamentally concerned with the quest for knowledge and understanding of ourselves and of nature, and as such with the conditions of the formation of our physical, emotional and intellectual powers, the development and communication of skills required for the production of things necessary or useful for our survival and improvement of our quality of life, the transmission of cultural norms and heritage, the cultivation of the values and excellence proper to our humanity, the civilisation and advancement of the human species. The Greek concept of paideia expresses the sum total of these constituent elements and the complex whole of their interrelationships and as such is closely related to the German concept of Bildung.

The term Bildung is more comprehensive and more complex than the English term "education",referring both to the process by which human individuals are formed and the "outcome" of their education or formation. Knowledge and information alone do not produce Bildung, yet transfer and internalization of information still comprises the most substantial part of education today.

Introduced into the German language by the philosopher and mystic Meister Eckhart, the idea of Bildung traces its roots to the Judaeo-Christian belief that human beings are created as image, i.e. Bild or Abbild of a divine Urbild or archetype. The same idea is prefigured in the Ancient Greek and Hellenistic idea of "becoming like God", homoiosis theoi, as it appears in Plato and his successors in the tradition of Platonism and Neoplatonism. The question of how ideas like this figure in the broader concept of culture expressed by the concepts of Bildung and paideia is central to our philosophical exploration of the relationship of nature, culture and Bildung.

Humboldt claimed that the aim of humanity is the complete development of the faculties of the human individual. Kant similarly claimed in his Critique of Judgment (1790) that it is the natural end of human beings to develop their natural capacities (Naturanlagen). In his Critique of Judgment (1790), Kant distinguishes between Kultur and Zivilisierung.Cultureis “the process of rendering a rational creature serviceable ‘for any purposes whatever’ (or the result of such a process when it has been successful)”, while civilization can refer simply to the external entrapments of culture, civility and manners. (R. Guess) For Kant, Bildung is inseparably tied to a “morally good cast of mind” or ethos.Although we may be highly cultivated through art and science, “civilized to an annoying extreme to all sorts of social civility and decency”, it would be far from correct to consider us therefore “moralized”. The “idea of morality”, however,“also belongs to culture.” Any use of that idea that is merely outwardly similar to what is moral with respect to norms of honour and decency misses the mark completely and even prevents the “slow effort of internal formation of the mentality” of the citizens of a just constitution. For “all good that is not grafted on a morally-good disposition”, is illusory and deplorable (Idee zu einer allgemeinen Geschichte in weltbürgerlicher Absicht).

In general, the word Bildung can refer either to the process of formation or the actual result of such a process. Whereas the termErziehung is used only to refer to the process of education or training, Bildung can be used to refer to either the process of formation or what is imparted in such a process. Erziehung, furthermore, is generally imposed by one person or group on another,as a parent is expected to train a child to conform to certain social expectations. Bildung, on the other hand, refers not only to the imposition of certain cultural forms or norms on another, but also to processes of self-cultivation and their outcome.In Hegel, the self-development of Geist takes the place of processes ofKultur, and concepts of Bildung are associated with these. The question of the role of art and philosophy in these processes is of central importance to our discussion. One of the tasks of our reflection on the relationship of Nature, Culture and Bildung, therefore, will be to see how Hegel’s reflection on the unfolding of Geist in historical processes compares to Humboldtian and Kantian conceptualisation of the same problems and influences later developments in philosophical reflection on these relationships, for example Adorno’s elaborated critique in his Theorie der Halbbildung.

Whereas nature seemingly concerns the sciences only, the ecological crisis has shown the need to take a closer look at the concept of nature, its meaning, function and one might be tempted to say mythological impetus as a factor in human life and culture. Culture not only changes nature according to its demands, it also threatens nature, both as a constituent of our own being and as the condition of our own continued existence as a species. But this is just one side of the story. Culture is nothing less than the medium to develop a relationship between thinking subjects and nature which might overcome the hiatus between culture and nature in a manner which will protect nature as nature and make possible our own higher development as beings of just this particular kind. In this regard, culture must be understood as a process rooted both in natural processes and in “Bildung” which builds on the same, a concept to which concerns more than education in a traditional sense. The aim of the course is to thoroughly investigate the concepts of nature, culture and “Bildung” in their interdependency and to formulate on that basis a workingstrategy for 21st century universities and educational systems as a whole.

*This course offers 6 ECTS points for a 30 min talk with handout