Wilhelm von Humboldt
Wilhelm von Humboldt | |
|---|---|
Portrait by Thomas Lawrence | |
| Born | 22 June 1767 |
| Died | 8 April 1835 (aged 67) Tegel, Prussia |
| Spouse | Caroline von Dacheröden |
| Education | |
| Education | University of Frankfurt (Oder) University of Göttingen |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | 19th-century philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Berlin Romanticism Romantic linguistics Classical liberalism |
| Institutions | University of Berlin |
| Main interests | Philosophy of language |
| Notable ideas | Language as a rule-governed system ("the inner form of language") Humboldtian model of higher education |
| Signature | |
Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand von Humboldt (22 June 1767 – 8 April 1835) was a German philosopher, linguist, government functionary, diplomat, and founder of the Humboldt University of Berlin. In 1949, the university was named after him and his younger brother, Alexander von Humboldt, a naturalist.
He was a linguist who made contributions to the philosophy of language, ethnolinguistics, and to the theory and practice of education. He made a major contribution to the development of liberalism by envisioning education as a means of realizing individual possibility rather than a way of drilling traditional ideas into youth to suit them for an already established occupation or social role. In particular, he was the architect of the Humboldtian education ideal, which was used from the beginning in Prussia as a model for its system of public education, as well as in the United States and Japan. He was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1822.