The notion of bildung has come a long way from the times of Wilhelm von Humboldt. In the field of philosophy of education it has been given various interpretations: from Gadamer's interpretation of Hegel's heritage to the notion of bildung (1975, 8-17), to post-modern interpretations of the notion (Gur-Ze'ev 2002), and to attempts to actualize the notion (Hammershøj 2009), few to mention. Although there are vast majority of different kinds of readings of what bildung is, some common features can be distinguished. It is acknowledged that bildung is something more then what is covered by the modern term of education (Ruhloff 2001, 58). It relies strongly on the tradition of humanism; for example Gadamer (1975) names bildung as one of the guiding concepts of humanism. Bildung also emphasizes voluntariness, rational autonomy and free will (see Biesta 2002a).

In its classical formulation bildung is typically understood as denoting the processes of self-formation or self-cultivation. Humboldt himself “proposed the reduction of state power to the barest minimum in order to insure freedom for individual self-cultivation” (Sorkin 1983, 55). The Enlightenment, especially by the influence of the works of Kant, further emphasized the role of the thinking and reasoning subject as the attribute of an enlightened person. Also the role of education as the means of self-cultivation gained central attention. Biesta (2002b, 378) even argues that education was a necessity for reaching the state of rational autonomy. Currently, although bildung is still one of the core concepts of philosophy of education, some authors have questioned the applicability of the notion to education in postmodern society (Biesta 2002a; Biesta 2002b) or in knowledge society (Hammershøj 2009).

In this paper it is questioned, what kind of implications this kind of understanding of the human conduct, emphasizing rational autonomy and self-cultivation, has for educational practices. These implications of the notion of bildung for education and learning are evaluated in the light of the knowledge society argument. It is proposed here that the implications for learning that the notion of bildung brings about are problematic in relation to the requirements for learning in the knowledge society. Especially in contrast to collectivist understanding of learning it is claimed that bildung deploys institutions of individual learner in the educational discourse, which are problematic in the light of the requirements for learning and education in the knowledge society. The topics of the discussions of this paper have the following structure: Bildung and the idea of responsible and rational agent; The knowledge society argument; Practices and cultural understanding of learning.

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