BILDUNG
Gadamer sees Bildung as a central concept in
the emergence of classical German thought. Gadamer sees the 18th century as a
period where so much of language received a distinctive form. However, the term
bildung has a long history:
origin in medieval mysticism
continuance in the baroque
religious spiritualisation in
Klopstock's
Messiah
Finally, Herder's definition as
'rising up to humanity through culture' p. 10
Gadamer goes on to show that the term Bildung
contains within it meanings such as 'natural form' or 'external appearance' and
shapes created by nature such as mountains. Where Kant uses Bildung to
refer to the cultivation of natural talent Hegel develops it to refer to
self-cultivation through education. Finally, Bildung comes to evoke an
ancient mystical tradition of carrying within one's soul the image of God which
man has to cultivate too. Gadamer goes on to conclude this section with the
following:
Bildung describes more the result of the process of
becoming than the process itself. The transition is especially clear here
because the result of Bildung is not achieved in the manner of a technical
construction but grows out of an inner process of formation and cultivation, and
therefore constantly remains in a state of continual Bildung (p. 11).