Wilhelm von Humboldt: R. Miniter

57 WilhelDlvon HUDlboldt: German Classical Liberal by RichardMiniter j ohn Stuart Mill'sOn Liberty is probably one of the best known, and most unabashed, lib eral works ever published. Mill's seminal defense of freedom of thought, speech, and action is widely acknowledged. Less well known are the writings of his intellectual precursor and some might say inspiration, the German liberal and author of The Limits of State Action, Wilhelm von Humboldt. Millbegan On Liberty around 1854,when Hum boldt's work was first published in English. The question of whether Humboldt stimulated Mill to write his famous essay is open to debate, yet Mill's frequent references to Humboldt in the text sug gest a connection. In Mill's Autobiography he writes, "[t]he only author who had preceded me ... of whom I thought it appropriate to say any thing, was Humboldt." Mill cites Humboldt as a formative influence, quoting him directly and in paraphrase throughout On Liberty. "Few persons, out of Germany, even comprehend the meaning of the doctrine which Wilhelm von Humboldt, so eminent both as a savant and as a politician, made the text of a treatise," wrote Mill in chapter 3 of On Liberty.1 That "celebrated treatise," in the words of The Westminster Review, is The Limits of State Action, which "ushered in a new era" in political theory.

Richard Miniter is an environmental policy analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. As a summer fellow at The Institute for Humane Studies in 1989, he concentrat ed on Wilhelm von Humboldt. Humboldt's thinking about the self-development of man and the role of the state inspired several thinkers to publish political essays. Born in 1767 to a noble family, Humboldt gained renown as a humanist, a linguist, an educa tion reformer, and a Prussian diplomat. He was among the greatest of Germany's liberals, a tradi tion which passed from prominence sometime before the middle of the last century. He stood strongly against state intervention-despite hold ing some of the highest posts in Prussia. Lord Acton called Humboldt "the most central figure in Germany" of his time, noting his close friendship with Goethe and Schiller. He was respected as both a scholar and a statesman. He founded the University of Berlin. German schoolmasters re member him as the architect of the German edu cational system and as an accomplished scholar in history, classical literature, and linguistics. Lin guists, such as Noam Chomsky,still cite his work.

He served as the Prussian emissaryto the Holy See and was Prussia's chief negotiator at the surrender of Napoleon's armies. Humboldt learned political philosophy the way he advocated all education should take place: through a series of voluntary associations. He became a regular member of the circle of Henri ette Herz, a leading Jewish intellectual. He joined several mutual improvement societies in Berlin and entered into "self-examining and explaining correspondence."2 Through his future wife Caro line von Dacheroden, Humboldt met Friedrich 58 THE FREEMAN • FEBRUARY 1991 Schiller, perhaps the greatest of the German romantics after Goethe. After meeting Schiller several times at Weimar and Jena, Humboldt kept up a regular correspondence with him. Later, he became a close friend of Goethe's, as well. Through a broad spectrum of experiences, Humboldt set out to develop a well-cultivated, unique, and sensitive personality. He wanted to animate all that was latent within himself, to become all that he was capable of being. Such an experiment in living required freedom ("the first and indispensable condition"), a variety of people and situations, and individuality. Each of these components can be found in a more developed form in The Limits of State Action, and for that matter, in Mill's On Liberty.

The French 'Revolution At the beginning of what was to become a life long trek toward self-improvement, Humboldt found himself in the midst of Europe's livinglabo ratory of political science:revolutionary France. In the summer of 1789,Humboldt's former tutor was invited to Paris by Mirabeau and took young Humboldt along. Mirabeau showed the pair the National Assembly at Versailles and the grave of Rousseau. But Humboldt had doubts about the future of the French Constitution and its bold plans to remold French society-by force, if neces sary.He felt strongly that force impedes self-devel opment, retards natural social evolution, penalizes innovative thinking, and rewards only conformity to the imposed order. After returning from France, and correspond ing with his friend Friedrich von Genz, a supporter of the revolution, Humboldt wrote Ideas on the Constitutions of States, occasioned by the New French Constitution. In this essay, published anonymously in 1791, he expressed doubts about the results of reshaping a society by force of law.

Intended as a letter to a friend, this essay antici pates some of the ideas covered by Edmund Burke in Reflections on the Revolution in France. More interesting still, Humboldt at this point had no knowledge of Burke. As' Burke did, Humboldt believed that nations and constitutions had to evolve naturally, not called into existence by parlor philosophers without great peril. "Reason is capable to be sure of giving form to material already present, but it has no power to create new material. ... Constitutions cannot be grafted upon men as sprigs on trees," Humboldt wrote. Self-Developmentversus StateAction When he returned to Berlin, Humboldt was giv en a minor post at the law court. But soon he real ized that public life had become controlled and thus grew anxious to leave Berlin. Liberalism in Germany had all but perished with Frederick the Great in 1786.Restrictions on freedom of the press and free exercise of religion were imposed with a new vigor. Government censors would, in some cases, require approval of articles prior to publica tion. Humboldt found little spontaneity and diver sity in the life of the civil service and the court.

Whatever opportunities for self-development may have existed, Humboldt felt his education had been arrested. Needless to say, he was ill at ease with the rulers of Prussia, although he remained wiselysilent at the time. Despite the urging of friends, Humboldt resigned his government post in the spring of 1791. Believing he could not prevent much evil or do much good in public office,he entered semi-retire ment at Tegel, the family estate, to devote himself "entirely to the cultivation of his friends, his newly married wife, and himself."3 His self-development-not to be confused with selfishness, but a genuine desire to become abet ter' fuller person-had become all-important. In August 1791,Humboldt wrote to Georg Forster: I have now absolvedfrom allbusiness,left Berlin, married, and live,in the country,an independent, freely chosen, infinitely happy life. . . . I do not feel from you such disapprobation of my step as I met with from so many others. You esteem lib erty and independent activity too highly to ex pect much utility from a man only dependent on his officialposition.... The axiom that nothing on earth is so important as the highest power,and most varied cultivation of the individual, and that, therefore, the primary law of true morality is, educate yourself, and only the second, influ ence others by what you are; these axioms are so firmlyimpressed upon my mind that nothing can change them."4 (italicsmine) Perhaps no shorter summary of Humboldt's WILHELM VON HUMBOLDT: GERMAN CLASSICAL LIBERAL 59 political philosophy could be written. The Limits is a more formal and complete statement of Hum boldt's philosophical opposition to state interven tion in the natural and necessary self-development of its citizens.

The Limits ofState Action In thinking over his exit from the Prussian bureaucracy, Humboldt began to reconsider the proper functions of the state. It didn't square with his idea of a many-sided self-development. He con sidered all governments of his day too large to pro vide the social conditions that enable human devel opment. This view is directly opposed to the one widely held today and warrants some explanation. Since a large state inevitably leads to an increase in the amount of force the government wields over society and individuals, and since power cannot long tolerate freedom or a diversity of views,a state seeking to provide for anything more than their physical safety ultimately ends up stifling its citi zens. A limited state, in which individuals are able to flourish with the aid of genuinely social institu tions (such as unregulated churches and schools), can protect its citizens from foreign invasion and domestic violence. But, Humboldt argues, a wel fare state erects barriers between the individual and the society in which he lives.By freely interact ing with the world around him, an individual seeks newer, better methods of solving common prob lems. Some of these methods he willcome upon on his own; some innovations will be learned from others. This is the source of social progress in a lib eral society. By dictating the terms under which people form associations, the state deprives such associations of their essential vigor and spontane ity. Thus, the transmission of new ideas is slowed and, when the state gains enough authority to reg ulate all of society,soon stops altogether.

In a sense, Humboldt's political theory is aes thetic: the individual is a work of art. While styles and techniques can be learned from others, the artist must hone his skills over time and learn to express himself in finer, subtler ways. Commands issued from a central authority, cannot create art. Art can only be created by the free and sponta neous interplay of ideas between the artist and his subject. This was the form of his ideas when Humboldt's friend Karl von Dalberg pressed him for his findings.The two began a debate which soon led Hum boldt to write The Limits of StateAction. Young Humboldt wrote this tract in 1791. "At a time when the ideas which it unfolds were in striking contrast to the events and opinions of the day, the book was long obnoxious to the scru ples of German censorship."5 Only passages from The Limits were published by Schiller. Joseph Coulthard notes that Schiller "took much interest in its publication, [yet] had some difficulty in find ing a publisher willing to incur the necessary responsibility."6 Humboldt never strayed far from the work he penned in his early 20s.7He made several revisions to The Limits during the course of his life, both before and after his years of service at some of the highest posts in the Prussian state. The Limits was finally published 17 years after his death. The manuscript remained incomplete and lesspolished than Humboldt's other works. Some gaps appear in the text, yet it helped shape the arguments of many 19th century liberals.

In The Limits Humboldt argues for a concep tion of happiness based on what he considers a nat ural drive for self-development. It is in freely choosing and pursuing self-development "and in striving to reach it by the combined application of his moral and physical energies that the true hap piness of man, in his full vigor and development, consists." What is the goal of this drive for self-develop ment, which Humboldt describes as the source of happiness? "The true end of man, or that which is prescribed by the eternal and immutable dictates of reason, and not suggested by vague and tran sient desires, is the highest and most harmonious development of his powers to a complete and con sistent whole." This end-harmonious self-development-is not a fixed point that can be completely captured or "possessed." As in the natural world, "we find that rest and possession exist only in imagination."

And because it cannot be possessed, it cannot be given by the state to interested individuals. It must be pursued by each person in his own way. Humboldt's conception of man, as a being who must strive for self-cultivation within society and who requires society for his full development, is an important contribution to the liberal tradition. Scholars outside the tradition of Adam Smith, David Hume, and Herbert Spencer might antici60 THE FREEMAN • FEBRUARY 1991 pate Humboldt's emphasis on the individual, but may be surprised by his positive view of society. Liberals are often criticized as "atomistic individ ualists"-self-interested islandswho prefer to hold society at a distance. Humboldt's arguments chal lenge the conventional wisdom that the individu alistic premises of liberal thinking necessarily exclude society and community. In fact, society and its institutions are what Humboldt wants to save from the power and grip of the state.

Humboldtand Educational Reform Humboldt is probably best remembered for reforming German education. Education was the social institution Humboldt cared most about -although, at first, he resisted being made Minis ter of Public Instruction charged with reforming German schools. He brought a radical conception of education to the post. His revolutionary ideas were soon insti tutionalized and remained in.place, with some modific.ations,well into this century. Humboldt's tenure as Minister of Public Instruction was said to be as masterly in organization as that of Prussian generals in war. What is interesting about this assessment is that Humboldt held the post for a scant 16 months. When Humboldt joined the liberal reform gov ernment in 1809,he advocated the abolition of mil itary schools and the closing of schools catering to the nobility, and opposed the creation of special middle schools for adolescents either uninterested or financially unable to undertake university stud ies. Humboldt wanted German schools to be places where a wide diversity of students would study together, free of state-imposed barriers.

The cornerstone of Humboldt's educational reforms was the humanistic Gymnasium. Based on the classical languages and literatures, the Gym nasium remained the dominant educational insti tution in Germany until the second half of this cen tury. Humboldt considered a student's mastery of the literature and philosophy of the ancients, espe cially the Greeks, a key foundation to genuine education. The University of Berlin, which Hum boldt founded, and much of Humboldt's design of the educational system are still in place. Leaving aside the apparent violation of his earlier injunc tions against state control of education, the re formed system is remarkably akin to the system he advocated years earlier. Through the imprint they left on a key sector of social life, Humboldt's ideas have had an enduring influence on German intel lectual development. From 1810 to 1813, Humboldt was the chief Prussian diplomat in Vienna. He acted as a head negotiator both before and after Napoleon's de feat, and served in London for the Prussian crown.

In 1819, Humboldt fought the passage of the Karlsbad Decrees, which would have imposed rigid censorship throughout Germany. When his efforts failed, Humboldt retired to private life. He refused the pension offered him by the king and returned to his estate to study languages and pur sue other scholarly work. He died in 1835. Humboldt's legacyis more than a string of polit ical acts and scholarly contributions. The Limits ofState Action offers a coherent and early defense of laissez-faire society without a single recourse to economics. For students of humanities, Hum boldt's work provides a solid and engaging intro duction to liberal thought. D 1. Humboldt also influencedMatthew Arnold, who dis agreed with him, however.See Arnold's Cultureand Anar chy, especiallychapter 3. Arnold cited directlyHumboldt's ideas on educationin Schoolsand Universitieson the Con tinent. 2. Juliette Bauer, Life of Wilhelm von Humboldt (Lon don: Ingram,Cooke,& Co., 1852)p. 250.

3. Introductionto The LimitsofStateAction by Wilhelm von Humboldt, edited by J. S. Burrow (New York: Cam bridgeUniversityPress,1969),p. ix. 4. Bauer,pp. 277-78,citingHumboldt'sletter of August 16, 1791,to Forster. 5. Wilhelm von Humboldt, The Sphere and Duties of Government,editedbyJosephCoulthard(London:Trubner & Co.,1854),p. iii (from Coulthard'sIntroduction). 6. Ibid. 7. Thisis not an uncontroversialstatement.Somewriters uphold Humboldt'sconstancyof conviction;many do not. John Chapmanwrote in the July-October1854issueof The WestminsterReview,"... howeverstartlingto somemay be itsdoctrines,it hasallthe authoritydue to the longsustained convictionsof a man of extraordinarycapacity.... " A majority of historians and philosophers who have examined Humboldt hold differently,however. See Leo nard Krieger,The GermanIdea of Freedom(Chicago:Bea con, 1957),pp. 170-71;and Paul Sweet'sexcellentWilhelm von Humboldt:A Biography,2 vols.(Columbus:OhioState University Press, 1978, 1980), vol. I, p. 108, vol. II, p. 20.

Sweetalso has an appendixin the firstvolumedealingwith the receptionof The Limits.