Concern about concentration of power

It was Humboldt who turned these lofty ideals into concrete reforms, laying the groundwork for the modern university and its research-led teaching model. For Humboldt, the realm of Bildung had political significance.

Living under Prussian absolutism, he feared the paternalism of the state that turned its citizens into loyal subjects under the pretence of furthering their spiritual and material welfare.

He was critical of the attempt of Frederick the Great, the Prussian king, to regulate economic life and to control private consumption. Humboldt saw such a concentration of power as a despotic tendency that all forms of government could succumb to, including oligarchy and democracy. He therefore insisted on spaces for individual expression and free association. Literary salons were the initial community space for Bildung, and were a model for the modern idea of universities.

Women, Black philosophers shape ideals

Yet, as critical thinkers such as Germaine de Staël have noted from early on, the Enlightenment betrayed the universal aspiration of its ideals by restricting their application mostly to a certain class of white and male Europeans.

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen from 1789 restricted active citizenship to male property owners and did not abolish slavery. Advocacy for applying equal rights to all was soon taken up by members of oppressed groups to justify their emancipatory pursuits.

Early feminists in late 19th-century Germany, such as the philosopher and writer Hedwig Dohm, demanded access to educational institutions so that women could also “become who they are.”

We find a similar battle cry in the United States, where writer and educator Anna Julia Cooper regarded the higher education of Black women as a key step to social change.

Both point to thinkers outside the European canon of male authors that helped shape the idea of Bildung. Its emancipatory appeal should not surprise us, since a plausible definition of the main harm of oppression is that it deprives individuals of the capacity to self-develop and to express shared experiences collectively. The opportunity to develop one’s capacities in accordance with one’s true values is a key characteristic of a just society.

Understanding as a collaborative process

I believe that the idea of Bildung still captures the value of humanities education. In-depth engagement with the complex manifestation of human cultures seen in philosophical ideas, forms of knowledge or literary texts fosters important skills necessary for self-development.

Students learn critical thinking, enabling them to question authorities and discern their own convictions from received values. They experience thinking as a process which takes time and demands the exploration of different points of view — similar to democratic decision-making.

Methods to understand others are therefore an important subject of the humanities. The humanities nurture the ability to connectand to develop solidarity with each other.

The classroom itself is a space where students experience understanding as a collaborative process by discussing with their peers and the instructor.

Instructors must actualize high-level pedagogical goals by creating concrete exercises through which intellectual skills can be learned and practised.

Assessing claims, justifying evaluations

Writing an essay has been the pinnacle of traditional humanities education, since it demands employing the full set of interpretative tools such as identifying sources, analyzing arguments, assessing claims and justifying evaluations independently. It also demands expressing oneself intellectually.

Basic analytic skills such as formulating an argument or giving an objection can be taught in class. But in-class assignments cannot replace pondering an issue over some time and expressing one’s interpretation of it.

The important exercise of individual study is deprived of its value when students use technological shortcuts to complete writing tasks. AI-driven chatbots undermine a key part of the learning process through which students improve their critical thinking. This happens through sustained engagement with complex issues, through which students grow by overcoming challenges and practising habits of thinking.

Dangers of ‘cognitive offloading’

Empirical studies show the negative impact of delegating cognitive tasks to external aids, also called cognitive offloading, on critical thinking skills. Cognitive offloading can have dire political consequences. While we do not live under absolutism anymore, the ugly head of despotism raises its head again.

In the U.S., as seen recently in Donald Trump’s second presidential inauguration, the economic elite dominates the political system. Tech oligarchs have found a president who is using his vast powers to further their interests and is prepared to do so without checks and balances.

More than ever, we need citizens who have learned to think for themselves and developed capacities for paying attention to and caring about complex challenges in our ever-changing world.

At their best, the humanities are a laboratory to cultivate essential skills for critically assessing the status quo and imagining better alternatives in both political and economic life.