Origins of German Self-Cultivation. <em>Bildung</em> and the Future of the Humanities (en Inglés) - Jennifer Ham;Ulrich Kinzel;David Tse-chien Pan

Recent devaluations of a liberal arts education call the formative concept of Bildung, a defining model of self-cultivation rooted in 18th and 19th century German philosophy and culture, into question and force us to reconsider what it once meant and now means to be an “educated” individual. This volume uses an arc of interdisciplinary scholarship to map both the epistemological origins and cultural expressions of the pivotal notion of Bildung at the heart of pursuit in the humanities. From its intriguing original historical manifestations to its continuing resonance in current ongoing debates surrounding the humanities, the editors urge us to ask and discover how the classical concept of Bildung, so central to humanistic inquiry, was historically imagined and applied in its original German context.

Informing current debate about the future of the humanities, this volume focuses discussions on the Bildung’s original German context using a multi-disciplinary perspective root out the interesting ways that Bildung continues to shape our understanding of self-formation.