When I was involved with teaching in the Netherlands, the German word ‘Bildung’ tended to get thrown around a lot. And one could still play a drinking game when following the Dutch discourse on the state of higher education, for example, with an eye out for this term.¹ But when I started blogging, I got many questions regarding the meaning of the name that I had chosen for the webpage that hosts my blogs: Bildungblocks. And then I realized that most people, luckily for them, have only ever enjoyed education and never had to be interested in the theoretical underpinnings or the adjacent vocabulary. Well, that ends today!

Joking aside, in this blog I will explore with you some of the many meanings that the term Bildung has acquired. Indeed, many. Because, regardless of my own experiences, the connotations of Bildung go far beyond the organization of formal education. In many languages where they forego the German term for their own translation, for instance, the meaning thereof mostly differs from the word for education.² As a useful aside, through this exploration we might even find out why this webpage, which you currently have open in one of probably way too many tabs, has that rather peculiar name.

This blog is also available in Dutch.

The Goal and the Journey

The term Bildung has its roots in medieval mysticism and it was only from the 18^th century CE onwards that it came to be connected to education and self-realization in a more modern sense.³ Though our current understanding is, as far as I can ascertain, primarily informed by a scholarly debate in the beginning of the previous century, between the burgeoning science of sociology on the one hand and the humanities on the other. This discussion revolved around choosing the principles that should underpin a desirable upbringing and ditto morals.⁴ To borrow a definition which more or less covers most contemporary uses of the word Bildung as it emerged from this debate, the term is about “the holistic development of the individual, as well as about broader hopes for a better society.”⁵ But if we really want to understand Bildung, including this definition, we need to distinguish Bildung as a goal from Bildung as a process.

When Bildung is viewed as a goal, it concerns the objective of one’s education or journey of self-realization – to read all classical works of literature, for example. Bildung as a process refers to the changes experienced by the subject that is educated or goes on a journey of self-realization.⁶ If we start with the former, Bildung as a goal, we can imagine that the desirable objectives of Bildung can be connected to the second part of our definition, the aspirations for a better society. What do we need to learn and to know to become better humans, so to say. But this comprehension of the term Bildung has also received criticism. Because, is it not elitist to determine goals for the desirable endpoint of everyone’s education and any further self-realization?⁷ Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu even postulates that Bildung merely reflects the social capital with which the higher classes might differentiate themselves from the proverbial plebs.⁸ Though some sort of a goal is arguably necessary, if one wants to say anything about that other interpretation of the term, Bildung as a process.⁹ As such, we might assign a goal to our preferred idea of Bildung, but we should be careful as to not let it be abused for elitism or worse.¹⁰

And there are proposals for more level-headed goals as the proper endpoint of one’s Bildung, in order to to achieve both the holistic development of individuals and a better world. The ideal of posthumanist Bildung, for instance, wherein the objective is to oppose the marketization of formal education systems and to focus once again on the upbringing of students.¹¹ This focus would entail that persons can cultivate their inner-lives and become their own, autonomous persons.¹² Another sense of Bildung, which is not excluded by the former perse, could be the development of a moral imagination. In this way our moral circle, those whose suffering we care about, would gradually include all of humankind.¹³ An adjacent idea is Bildung as the act of stretching one’s experience beyond one’s own little world and opening up to others.¹⁴ Such loftier goals would, at the very least and, entail an understanding of one’s own thinking, as well as of our world, its history, and one’s fellow inhabitants of this rock that is coursing through space at an unimaginable speed. And if we aim to adopt a variation on these kinds of objectives, it is becomes paramount to turn our focus to the process of Bildung.

Development and Prejudices

With such goals Bildung is arguably more a of becoming than a being – the process takes center stage.¹⁵ It is, in this context, expedient to distinguish roughly two approaches to Bildung as a process. In the first place is there the emphasis, accentuated amongst others by the philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer, on opening up to others and unlearning prejudices.¹⁶ This would prominently include encountering difference in every sense of the word.¹⁷ One would venture beyond oneself, so to say, and return a changed person.¹⁸ And this would be a becoming – a Bildung – that is a lifelong project.

In the second place, we can view the process that we call Bildung as a journey of learning – incorporating both the ideas of education and of self-realization – in which one not only acquires knowledge, but also a sense of independent thinking beyond erstwhile perceived boundaries. If that sounds suspiciously like unlearning prejudices to you, than you’re right! As such, a combination of these two approaches is not only possible, but perhaps even advisable. Because it might be possible to embark on such a journey wherein we develop ourselves and acquire knowledge, but at the same time learn to know ourselves for who we are through others and lose our prejudices along the way.¹⁹ But what kind of knowledge would we need to acquire? Should we indeed read all the literary classics or in some sort of other way become an expert, be it in the humanities or any other scholarly or scientific field?

Beyond Specialization

Don’t worry, we should not all strive to become professors! As became readily apparent when we talked about breaking the walls of our own little worlds and the importance of unlearning prejudices, those that advocate for Bildung as a process are, most of the time, not merely interested in specialist knowledge – though such acumen probably wouldn’t hurt anyone.²⁰ Because, we do not only need to know what things are, but also why they are. As such, even those lucky enough to be a hyperspecialist should sometimes look beyond their field.

In our current day and age, the process that is Bildung could be hamstrung if it pivots too much to adaptation without questions instead of reflection. When one would only absorb the knowledge that is prescribed – or even if it is applied without much imagination – it will be hard to look beyond one’s own self in the sense that those lofty goals of earlier require. And it is for this reason that Bildung is not only about acquiring knowledge and starting that dialogue with others. But also about returning with what one has now learned to what one previously thought one knew and reflect on that in this new light. One is thus not only learning, but also unlearning – I am sure pretty Scrabble allows that word! – you are changing the way you think!²¹

If we take up the topic of specialist knowledge one last time: Bildung as a process would mean to place one’s specialist knowledge in a more comprehensive framework. To return to science or scholarship in a more general sense and reflect about what you have learned while you were far away in the fabled land of specialization. Some of the specialists reading this blog – and perhaps almost everybody else – might now feel a bit overwhelmed by the demands that Bildung could make of them. And there is really not much to say here, except that the process of Bildung will not always be a walk in the park. It could even involve suffering.²² In this way, those interpretations of Bildung as a demanding undertaking are a good fit for the esthetic of Dark Academia. This is a digital subculture wherein persons express, through imagery and music for example, that they have lost themselves in learning at a personal cost.²³ But it remains an undertaking which offers rich rewards, especially if one can take this journey one Bildungblock at a time!

Conclusion: Bildungromans and Bildungblocks

Throughout the previous paragraphs some of you have undoubtedly waited for the one way in which Bildung is arguably still part of our daily vocabulary: the Bildungsroman. That designation can be read on the cover of many books, as well as in the adjacent discussions and reviews.²⁴ Following a common definition, such books contain stories in which the lead character learns about themselves and accepts their role in society, through good and bad experiences.²⁵ And even though we may recognize some of the elements that came up during our own exploration of the term Bildung, this specific notion seems to differ markedly. There is a journey and an experience outside of oneself, alright. But it seems more focused on adaptation than on reflection.²⁶ Why then do I bring up the Bildungsroman at all, when I am supposed to talk about the origin of the name for this webpage?

In addition to their specific theme, those books are still stories. Stories that are build with certain elements, one could even say… blocks.²⁷ Those blocks might be the chapters or the structure of the plot, but can also be the arc of a character or a running gag. And it is through the (re)combination of such blocks, that stories work their magic – whether they are Bildungromans or not. This here is why the name of this webpage combines the elements ‘Bildung’ and ‘blocks’. Because, my blogs offer Bildung, but in manageable pieces. Pieces that, on their own or taken as a whole, constitute a veritable story. So that people can, if only for a moment, leisurely travel to times and marvel at arts that are nowadays kind of obscure but, in my opinion, still important enough to be part of anyone’s Bildung. Because the topics discussed at Bildungblocks belong, I think, to that part of the humanities through which we can be more complete persons.²⁸ And in this way, my blogs hopefully provide an accessible mode of learning, which is often not available to most after they have left the formal education system.

In the end, we can only conclude that this is a topic which merits more than one blog. And this will therefore not be the last time that I write about Bildung, I suppose – because there is so much left to tell. Did you know that posthumanist Bildung would require us to rethink ontology, epistemology, and ethics?²⁹ Or that there are many possible connections between Bildung and Gender Studies, for example?³⁰ Now you do! And this is part of the reason that makes the medium of a blog so attractive, especially when one aims to offer Bildungblocks. You don’t always have to make definitive statements. Because you can return to a subject and revisit it or demolish your previous preconceptions if need be. In fact, that sounds a lot like the term Bildung, as we defined it above! But whether next week will bring back a topic that you’ve already read about, or something entirely novel is, for now, my secret to keep.

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References

1. I mention three recentish examples: Gijs Beukers, “Niets Menselijks Is Ons Vreemd”, deVolkskrant 18 November 2023, Boeken en Wetenschap, p. 8-10; Tje Lenders, “Cijfers Liegen Niet (Maar Zwijgen Vooral)”, Vrij Nederland 6 July 2023, p. 115; Nnenna Onwuka, “Studenten zijn Wandelende CV’s geworden”, NRC Handelsblad 13 December 2022, Opinie, p. 20.
2. Øivind Varkøy, “The Concept of ‘Bildung’”, Philosophy of Music Education Review 2010, 18 (1), p. 86-87.
3. Hans-Georg Gadamer, Waarheid & Methode: Hoofdlijnen van een Filosofische Hermeneutiek (Nijmegen: Uitgeverij vanTilt, 2014), p. 23; Susan L. Cocalis, “The Transformation of ‘Bildung’ from an Image to an Ideal”, Monatshefte 1978, 70 (4), p. 400. I have bypassed a lot of history here. From the role of Classical Greece and Ancient Rome in earlier ideas of Bildung, to the works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Johann Gottfried von Herder, to which much of the cited literature harkens back. For a succinct overview, see: Anders Odenstedt, “Hegel and Gadamer on Bildung”, The Southern Journal of Philosophy 2008, 46 (4), p. 559-561; Carol A. Taylor, “Is a Posthumanist ‘Bildung’ Possible? Reclaiming the Promise of ‘Bildung’ for Contemporary Higher Education, Higher Education 2017, 74 (3), p. 404.
4. Michiel Leezenberg & Gerard H. de Vries, Wetenschapsfilosofie voor Geesteswetenschappen (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2012), p. 143.
5. Rebekka Horlacher, “Bildung: A Construction of a History of Philosophy of Education”, Studies in Philosophy and Education 2004, 23 (5-6), p. 409.
6. Varkøy, “The Concept of ‘Bildung’”, p. 87-89.
7. Ibidem, p. 87-88.
8. Leezenberg & De Vries, Wetenschapsfilosofie voor Geesteswetenschappen, p. 265.
9. Varkøy, “The Concept of ‘Bildung’”, p. 88.
10. Leezenberg & De Vries, Wetenschapsfilosofie voor Geesteswetenschappen, p. 274, 318-319.
11. Taylor, “Is a Posthumanist ‘Bildung’ Possible?”, p. 420-421.
12. Ibidem, p. 422-423.
13. Martha Minow, Not Only for Myself: Identity, Politics, and the Law (New York: New Press, 1997), 27, 130-131; Richard Rorty, Truth and Progress: Philosophical Papers (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 176. Though neither Martha Minow nor Richard Rorty use the word ‘Bildung’ here, they do hint at a similar concept.
14. Varkøy, “The Concept of ‘Bildung’”, p. 91.
15. Bart van Rosmalen, Muzische Professionalisering: Publieke Waarden in Professioneel Handelen (Utrecht: Uitgeverij IJzer, 2016), p. 87.
16. Ibidem, p. 90.
17. Varkøy, “The Concept of ‘Bildung’”, p. 94.
18. Van Rosmalen, Muzische Professionalisering, p. 91.
19. Varkøy, “The Concept of ‘Bildung’”, p. 88.
20. Ibidem, p. 92.
21. Ilan Gur-Ze’ev, “Bildung and Critical Theory in the Face of Postmodern Education”, Journal of Philosophy of Education 2002, 36 (3), 408.
22. Taylor, “Is a Posthumanist ‘Bildung’ Possible?”, p. 424; Gur-Ze’ev, “Bildung and Critical Theory in the Face of Postmodern Education”, p. 400.
23. Simone Murray, “Dark Academia: Bookishness, Readerly Self-fashioning and the Digital Afterlife of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History” English studies 2023, 104 (2), p. 349-350.
24. Katrin Dennerlein & Elisabeth Böhm, “Einleitung”, in: Elisabeth Böhm & Katrin Dennerlein (eds.), Der Bildungsroman im literarischen Feld: Neue Perspektiven auf eine Gattung mit Bourdieus Feldtheorie (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016), p. 1.
25. Cocalis, “The Transformation of ‘Bildung’ from an Image to an Ideal”, p. 399.
26. Ibidem, p. 408-411.
27. Laura Feldt, “Religion, Nature, and Ambiguous Space in Ancient Mesopotamia: The Mountain Wilderness in Old Babylonian Religious Narratives”, NUMEN 2016, 63 (4), p. 351-352.
28. Varkøy, “The Concept of ‘Bildung’”, p. 94.
29. Taylor, “Is a Posthumanist ‘Bildung’ Possible?”, p. 427-433.
30. Jutta Hartmann, Astrid Messerschmidt & Christine Thon, “Queering Bildung”, in: Jutta Hartmann Astrid Messerschmidt Christine Thon (eds.), Queertheoretische Perspektiven auf Bildung: Pädagogische Kritik der Heteronormativität (Toronto: Verlag Barbara Budrich, 2017), p. 15-16.