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Exile, Science and BildungA Humanist Program in Exile: Thomas Mann in Philosophical Correspondence with his Contemporaries

Exile, Science and Bildung: A Humanist Program in Exile: Thomas Mann in Philosophical... [Bildung is the individual acquisition of an orienting knowledge. The “history of Bildung”1 can be written according to its social bearers, legally constituted institutions, leading ideas, authoritative founders or representatives, or changes in semantics. The end of Bildung, according to Nietzsche, is the “sovereign individual” or “free spirit.” 2 Thomas Mann followed him in this conception.3 German neo-humanism was marked by the idea, influentially restated by Ernst Cassirer in 1916,4 that “freedom” must give itself a “form.” Mann accepted this, adding to it a Nietzschean concentration— also to be found in the George Circle—on the authoritative “founders” of a Bildung-form. He called them “the mighty ones,” the “masters” of a nation, and he memorialized them in their “suffering” and “greatness.” In his summative essay, “The Three Mighty Ones,” he distinguished three “monumental figures” 5 of “the German genius,” Luther, Goethe, and Bismarck, and he directed the nation toward Goethe. Mann viewed the history of Bildung as the history of the reception of the “mighty ones” — to use the language of Ernst Bertram—as the “legend” of the “myth” of a hero. Analogously, the history of the reception of Thomas Mann can be read for its representativeness in the history of German Bildung. In this, I do not limit myself to the historical findings, but rather hold fast to the philosophical question of Mann’s validity as a German “master” of humane orientation.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

Exile, Science and BildungA Humanist Program in Exile: Thomas Mann in Philosophical Correspondence with his Contemporaries

Part of the Studies in European Culture and History Book Series
Editors: Kettler, David; Lauer, Gerhard
Mehring, Reinhard
Exile, Science and Bildung — Feb 22, 2016
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References (3)

Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan US
Copyright
© Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Nature America Inc. 2005
ISBN
978-1-349-73456-6
Pages
47 –62
DOI
10.1007/978-1-137-04596-6_4
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[Bildung is the individual acquisition of an orienting knowledge. The “history of Bildung”1 can be written according to its social bearers, legally constituted institutions, leading ideas, authoritative founders or representatives, or changes in semantics. The end of Bildung, according to Nietzsche, is the “sovereign individual” or “free spirit.” 2 Thomas Mann followed him in this conception.3 German neo-humanism was marked by the idea, influentially restated by Ernst Cassirer in 1916,4 that “freedom” must give itself a “form.” Mann accepted this, adding to it a Nietzschean concentration— also to be found in the George Circle—on the authoritative “founders” of a Bildung-form. He called them “the mighty ones,” the “masters” of a nation, and he memorialized them in their “suffering” and “greatness.” In his summative essay, “The Three Mighty Ones,” he distinguished three “monumental figures” 5 of “the German genius,” Luther, Goethe, and Bismarck, and he directed the nation toward Goethe. Mann viewed the history of Bildung as the history of the reception of the “mighty ones” — to use the language of Ernst Bertram—as the “legend” of the “myth” of a hero. Analogously, the history of the reception of Thomas Mann can be read for its representativeness in the history of German Bildung. In this, I do not limit myself to the historical findings, but rather hold fast to the philosophical question of Mann’s validity as a German “master” of humane orientation.]

Published: Feb 22, 2016

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