Wilhelm von Humboldt, born Potsdam 1767, died Tegel 1835.Humboldt's work on the self-development of man and the role of the state argues that a state seeking to provide for more then the physical safety of its citizens will inevitably destroy the freedom and the creativity of individuals. The only source of progress in a liberal society is the free interaction of free people. In Humboldt's view human beings strive for self-cultivation within society and require a free society for their full development.
Go on. Read it. You know you should. You might even want to.
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5 comments:
You would make Humboldt Current again?
Yes, S.
(Why do I feel like an angel on a surfboard and that you are a first glimpse of a circling shark?)
Bagsy no discussion in German, should you honour us with your thoughts, as all my German books are in Florence and I am in the country.
Sackerson, PLEASE.
It's Friday morning and we don't need puns like that.
Anon - sorry, it was too tempting. HG - No shark I. To which of Humboldt's works do you refer, seeing that he wrote a lot of natural history and cosmology?
And he taught Mme de Stael German, S.
To quote Burrow quoting Madame:
'Mme de Stael, obviously assuming, reasonably enough, that she had met them all, called him simply "la plus grande capacite de l'Europe". Schiller found him 'the ideal balance of reason and emotion..'
So I thought he was a good bet for learning German. But he turned out o be the bees knees for just about every idea in his day. Which was quite a day.
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