Forming Humanity : Redeeming the German Bildung Tradition / / Jennifer A. Herdt

• Record Nr.: UNINA9911046605203321
• Autore: Herdt Jennifer A.
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Chicago : , : University of Chicago Press, , [2019]; ©2019
• ISBN: 9780226618517; 022661851X
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (338 pages)
• Collana: Chicago scholarship online
• Disciplina: 170.943
• Soggetti: Philosophy, German - 18th century; Philosophy, German - 19th century; Humanism - Germany - History - 18th century; Humanism - Germany - History - 19th century; Moral development - Germany; Bildungsromans - History and criticism; Philosophy and religion - Germany - History - 18th century; Philosophy and religion - Germany - History - 19th century; Religion and culture
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Previously issued in print: 2019.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1. From Paideia to Humanism -- 2. Pietism and the Problem of Human Craft (Menschen-Kunst) -- 3. The Harmonious Harp-Playing of Humanity: J. G. Herder -- 4. Ethical Formation and the Invention of the Religion of Art -- 5. The Rise of the Bildungsroman and the Commodification of Literature -- 6. Authorship and Its Resignation in Goethe's Wilhelm Meister -- 7. "The Bildung of Self-Consciousness Itself towards Science": Hegel -- Conclusion -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Index
• Sommario/riassunto: Kant's proclamation of humankind's emergence from "self-incurred immaturity" left his contemporaries with a puzzle: What models should we use to sculpt ourselves if we no longer look to divine grace or received authorities? Deftly uncovering the roots of this question in ; Rhineland mysticism, Pietist introspection, and the rise of the bildungsroman, Jennifer A. Herdt reveals bildung, or ethical formation, as the key to post-Kantian thought. This was no simple process of secularization, in which human beings took responsibility for something they had earlier left in the hands of God. Rather, theorists of bildung, from Herder through Goethe to Hegel, championed human agency in self-determination while working out the social and political implications of our creation in the image of God. While bildung was invoked to justify racism and colonialism by stigmatizing those deemed resistant to self-cultivation, it also nourished ideals of dialogical encounter and mutual recognition. Herdt reveals how the project of forming humanity lives on in our ongoing efforts to grapple with this complicated legacy.