The Uses and Disadvantages of Bildung for Culture

Abstract

Chapter 2 discusses Nietzsche’s relationship to the Bildung tradition in German thought, a tradition running, in its heyday, from Weimar classicism through the German Romantics and beyond. The chapter investigates two texts primarily, Nietzsche’s “David Strauss” essay and his lectures “On the Future of Our Educational Institutions.” A key theme from the “David Strauss” essay, and elsewhere in the Untimely Meditations, is that true Bildung will not be a mere accumulation of cultural experiences, but rather will involve a kind of inner transformation. The chapter charts the way this ideal continues into Nietzsche’s later work as a model of self-shaping for individuals to undertake. Nietzsche, in “On the Future of Our Educational Institutions,” is pessimistic that such genuine Bildung is possible for most people.