Gurevich, P. S. Bildung as the Problem of Education

Abstract: The article is devoted the phenomenon of Bildung as the problem of education. This theme dates back to Immanuel Kant who related teaching to the general concept of philosophical anthropology. A German philosopher emphasized the great importance of the phenomenon of enlightenment and tried to describe the process of self-cultivation. After Kant the term became very popular in social and teaching literature. Adherents of self-cultivation (Bildung) have viewed a number of important didactic issues including the relation between ‘knowledge’ and ‘understanding’, between rationality and irrationality, ability to develop mental skills and to use conceptual thinking. Self-cultivation covers a wide range of issues related to both morals and one’s cognitive experience. Bildung would be impossible without developing the main provisions of the philosophical concept of human. The article is based on the principles of analytical philosophy. Psychology and mechanisms describing mental processes are becoming especially important for ef􀏔icient self-cultivation. Pavel Gurevich also uses the main ideas of social philosophy describing the role of the social being in denoting human as a special type of creation. The novelty of the problem is in the fact that the phenomenon of ‘self-cultivation’ is rather understudied in Russian literature. Pavel Gurevich also criticizes some modern researches that do not see a fundamental difference between animal and human. He also proves the provision that the social guarantees but does not constitute the existence of mind. People acquire rational abilities through Bildung but Bildung does not necessarily realize these abilities. They are not determined by the same relations that de􀏔ine our social ties with others. Conceptual abilities can be acquired only through being involved in social practice.

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