v. 1. Schriften zur Anthropologie und Geschichte -- v. 2. Schriften zur Altertumskunde und Ästhetik. Die Vasken -- v. 3. Schriften zur Sprachphilosophie -- v. 4. Schriften zur politik und zum bildungswesen -- v. 5. Kleine Schriften, autobiographisches, Dichtungen, Briefe, Kommentare und Ammerkungen zu Band I-V, Anhang.

This is an entirely new translation of one of the fundamental works in the development of the study of language. Published in 1836, it formed the general introduction to Wilhelm von Humboldt's three-volume treatise on the Kawi language of Java. It is the final statement of his lifelong study of the nature of language, and presents a survey of a great many languages, exploring ways in which their various grammatical structures make them more or less suitable as vehicles of (...) thought and cultural development. Empirically wide-ranging - von Humboldt goes far beyond the Indo-European family of languages - it remains one of the most interesting and important attempts to draw philosophical conclusions from comparative linguistics. (shrink)

Wilhelm von Humboldt's classic study of human language was first published in 1836, as a general introduction to his three-volume treatise on the Kawi language of Java. It is the final statement of his lifelong study of the nature of language, exploring its universal structures and its relation to mind and culture. Empirically wide-ranging - Humboldt goes far beyond the Indo-European family of languages - it remains one of the most interesting and important attempts to draw philosophical conclusions from (...) comparative linguistics. This volume presents a translation by Peter Heath, together with an introduction by Michael Losonsky that places Humboldt's work in its historical context and discusses its relevance to contemporary work in philosophy, linguistics, cognitive science, and psychology. (shrink)

Schellings Vorlesungen von 1803 geben keine didaktischen Anweisungen, sondern erörtern, begründen und betonen die Rolle und Bedeutung des methodischen wissenschaftlichen Denkens für die freie und allgemeine gesellschaftliche Bildung. Humboldts Modell der auf die Idee der Freiheit und das Prinzip der Einheit der Wissenschaften gegründeten Universität basiert auf den von Schelling in dieser Schrift errichteten Fundamenten.

The paradigmatic importance of Humboldt's university reform today, is reason enough to question the historical significance and the current orientation force that pulses influenced by Schleiermacher, the Berlin founding 200 years ago. But to be in this band the ideas and initiatives with which Schleiermacher brought in the University of Berlin foundation, placed in the broader context of its reasoning, the science of theology character. Central to this is his definition of the relationship between religion and Christianity, church and culture, (...) attributable to the taking Schleiermacher a modern-grade theology, and church Christentums- understanding investigated. (shrink)

Hegel et l'Orient vise a combler une lacune : dans les cours de Berlin consacres a la Philosophie de l'Histoire et a la Philosophie de la Religion, l'Orient occupe une place considerable, mais cette enorme masse de textes n'a guere jusqu'ici retenu l'attention des historiens de la philosophie. L'auteur s'efforce tout d'abord de reperer les motifs qui ont conduit Hegel a elever a la dignite de categorie philosophique le tres ancien mythe de l'Orient et de replacer cette reconstruction historico-speculative dans (...) le cadre general de sa doctrine. Pour ce faire, l'auteur examine, a travers les textes classiques (Phenomenologie de l'Esprit, Logique et Encyclopedie), mais aussi a travers les Ecrits de jeunesse, comment Hegel est conduit a accorder a l'Orient une place importante dans les premiers cours d'Esthetique et dans les Principes de la philosophie du droit, ainsi que la maniere dont le theme est repris et developpe dans La raison dans l'histoire et dans la Philosophie de la Religion. Il examine parallelement le contexte immediat de l'histoire des idees (redecouverte de l'Orient par l'Aufklarung et le Romantisme allemand) et les raisons de l'attitude, generalement polemique, de Hegel vis-a-vis de ces courants. Il s'interroge enfin sur la valeur et les limites de l'interpretation hegelienne. En annexe est presentee la Recension que Hegel fait de la Dissertation de W. von Humboldt sur la Bhagavad-Gita - publiee en 1827 dans les Jahrbucher fur wissenschaftliche Kritik, et jusqu'alors inedite en francais - qui fournit une illustration vivante de ces themes. (shrink)

Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767-1835) is the progenitor of modern linguistics and the originator of the modern teaching and research university. However, his work has received remarkably little attention in the English-speaking world. Humboldt conceives language as the source of cognition as well as communication, both rooted in the possibility of human dialogue. In the same way, his idea of the university posits the free encounter between radically different personalities as the source of education for freedom. For Humboldt, both linguistic (...) and intellectual communication are predicated firstly on dialogue between persons, which is the prerequisite for all intercultural understanding. Linking Humboldt's concept of dialogue to his idea of translation between languages, persons, and cultures, this book shows how Humboldt's thought is of great contemporary relevance. Humboldt shows a way beyond the false alternatives of "culturalism" (the demand that a plurality of cultural and faith-based traditions be recognized as sources of ethical and political legitimacy in the modern world) and "universalism" (the assertion of the primacy of a universal culture of human rights and the renewal of the European Enlightenment project). John Walker explains how Humboldt's work emerges from the intellectual conflicts of his time and yet directly addresses the concerns of our own post-secular and multicultural age. (shrink)

While the concept of Bildung has acquired international currency in educational and philosophical studies, its moral implications have been obscured by existing educational accounts. I present the moral implications inherent in the term through specific reference to the early works of Wilhelm von Humboldt. In contrast to previous scholarships, where Humboldt’s theory of Bildung has been deployed for drawing on the account of the true end of the human being and the inner process of interaction between the self and (...) the world, I draw on Bildung as a moral conception of promoting a good life for others. To illustrate this conception, I (a) demonstrate the basic structure of Humboldt’s theory of Bildung by examining its four core components, (b) reconstruct Humboldt’s notion of virtue balanced state of various faculties as a moral ideal (c) consider Humboldt’s philosophical historiography to illustrate how Bildung can be mediated at individual and collective levels, and (d) present the concrete forms of the obligation to promote the good lives of others in his anthropological writings. (shrink)

Wilhelm von Humboldts Rechtsphilosophie ist bei weitem nicht so bekannt wie seine Sprachphilosophie oder gar seine Rolle als Bildungsreformer. Der Autor untersucht zu diesem Zweck Humboldts "Ideen zu einem Versuch, die Grenzen der Wirksamkeit des Staates zu bestimmen".

The following study tries to elucidate the connection between the discourse of natural philosophy in the late eighteenth century and Wilhelm von Humboldt's anthropological, aesthetic and linguistic writings. The concepts of force, organism and, most significantly, of generation, as they were developed in the natural sciences, are shown to have strongly influenced Humboldt's philosophy. ;The first chapter reconstructs the scientific discussion about biological generation in the 18th century. At the end of the century, the widely accepted theory of preformationism (...) is challenged and replaced by the epigenetic model of generation, according to which each organism is individually produced by both parents and the workings of a formative force. ;The second chapter interprets the significance of this change for the philosophy of German Idealism, most notably in the works of Kant and Fichte. Epigenesis and its key concepts, such as "formative impulse" , organism and individuality is shown to provide a biological base for the idealist theories of subjectivity and freedom. ;The third chapter investigates Humboldt's involvement in the discourse and practice of natural philosophy during his studies at Gottingen and Jena. He discussed these problems frequently with his brother Alexander and his friends Schiller, Goethe and Fichte. His famous articles on the significance of sexual difference can be understood as a philosophical interpretation of his own scientific studies. ;The fourth chapter shows the main concepts of natural philosophy at work in Humboldt's mature writings about the philosophy of language. Against the backdrop of Goethe's scientific work, Humboldt's linguistic theory appears as an application of scientific notions to the "organism" of language. ;The fifth chapter concentrates on Humboldt's account of the mutual dependence and the mutual generation of language and thought. With his epigenetic account he tries to overcome the impasses of earlier 18th century theories of language. ;The last chapter focuses on the essential element in Humboldt's linguistic theory, the problem of articulation. Humboldt interprets articulation seen from the side of the subject as an act of violence, opposed to the material power of historically given languages. This interplay between violence and power is also shown to be at the center of Humboldt's hitherto unnoticed poetic works. (shrink)

In this essay, written for the public presentation of Wilhelm von Humboldt, Scritti filosofici, edited by Giovanni Moretto and Fulvio Tessitore , the author underlines the controversial relationship between Humboldt’s historical-anthropological thought and Kantian criticism, which represents nevertheless a premise both essential and encumbering of Humbolt’s reflection.

Ce n'est que tard dans sa vie que Wilhelm von Humboldt a donné au concept de « forme de la langue » son nom et sa définition. Ce qui est réellement nouveau dans cette conception, par rapport à ses analyses plus anciennes, c'est que, à côté de sa fonction régulatrice en linguistique, elle correspond chez Humboldt à une affirmation accrue de l'unité et de l'autonomie de chacune des langues. Une langue n'est pas l'émanation d'une nation donnée ; c'est un (...) être, pas un simple phénomène. Cela ne veut pas dire que les langues auront toutes la même valeur spirituelle, ni que l'individu sera prisonnier de la langue ; mais, dans son chemin vers la reconnaissance de cet être de la langue, Humboldt prend le risque de rouvrir le dualisme qu'il voulait fermer. Tout spécialement quand la « forme interne de la langue » évoque quelque sujet spirituel qui se servirait des outils grammaticaux et lexicaux. Cela ne veut pas dire que les langues auront toutes la même valeur spirituelle, ni que l'individu sera prisonnier de la langue ; mais, dans son chemin vers la reconnaissance de cet être de la langue, Humboldt prend le risque de rouvrir le dualisme qu'il voulait fermer. Tout spécialement quand la « forme interne de la langue » évoque quelque sujet spirituel qui se servirait des outils grammaticaux et lexicaux. Wilhelm von Humboldt gave the concept of « form of language » a name and a definition only late in his life. What is really new in this conception, in comparison to his older ones, is that, besides its regulative fonction for the linguist, it has to be linked to a stronger emphasis put by Humboldt on both unity and autonomy of every language. A language is not only the émanation of a certain nation ; it is a being, not only a phenomenon. This does not mean that all languages will have the same spiritual worth. It does not either mean that the individual will be some prisoner of the language ; but in his path towards the recognition of the being of the language Humboldt runs the risk of breaking open the dualism he wanted to heal up. Especially when the « inner form of the language » calls up some spiritual subject using both grammatical and lexical tools. (shrink)

Wilhelm von HumboldtHumboldt, Wilhelm von war ein berühmter preußischer Gelehrter und Bildungsreformer. Sein posthum veröffentlichtes Werk Ideen zu einem Entwurf, die Grenzen der Wirksamkeit des Staates zu beschränken wird in Mills Schrift On Liberty und in seiner Autobiography mehrfach zustimmend erwähnt und zitiert. Selbst das Epigraph, welches Mill als Motto seiner Freiheitsschrift voranstellt, stammt von Humboldt: „The grand, leading principle, towards which every argument unfolded in these pages directly converges, is the absolute and essential importance of human development (...) in its richest diversity“ (CW XVIII, 215). (shrink)

Cover title: Wilhelm v. Humboldt. Includes bibliographical references (p. 173-[182]) and indexes.

Toward the beginning of 2013, I received reports of passages in the Black Notebooks that offered observations on Jewry, or as the case may be, world Jewry. It immediately became clear to me that the publication of the Black Notebooks would call forth a wide-spread international debate. Already in the Spring of 2013, I had asked Professor Friedrich-Wilhelm von Herrmann, last private assistant – and in the words of my grandfather, the “chief co-worker of the complete edition”, – if (...) he might review the Notebooks as a whole, based on his profound insight into the thought of Martin Heidegger, and in particular, review those Jewish-related passages that were the focus of the public eye. Publications about the Black Notebooks quickly came to propagate catchy expressions such as “being-historical anti-Semitism” and “metaphysical anti-Semitism”. The first question that obviously arises is: Does the thought of Martin Heidegger exhibit any kind of anti-Semitism at all? In this book Professor von Herrmann now advances his hermeneutic explication. With Professor Francesco Alfieri of the Pontificia Università Lateranense he has found a colleague who has drawn up a comprehensive philological analysis of volumes GA 94 through GA 97 of the Complete Edition. The fact that Heidegger designated the hitherto published “black notebooks” as Ponderings and as Observations has been given little consideration. He intentionally placed them at the conclusion of the Complete Edition because without acquaintance with the lectures, and above all, with the being-historical treatises that would come to be published in the framework of the Complete Edition, they would not be comprehensible. (shrink)

(2003). Perfecting the Individual: Wilhelm von Humboldt's concept of anthropology, Bildung and mimesis. Educational Philosophy and Theory: Vol. 35, No. 2, pp. 241-249.