13 June 2007 by majni

By Robin Engelhardt (quarterly@dpu.dk)

As I enter Professor Benners office in Geschwister Scholl Strasse, I send a silent greeting to the row of German thinkers who greet me from their places of honour on the wall. Humboldt himself seems to hide behind his small shoulders, while Schleiermacher is obviously not to be trifled with. Kant, as ever, is staring to the right, and Fichte is in search of himself in the camera lens. Hegel's bloated face was always disconcerting to me, so instead I turn my gaze to the office shelves, where the combined writings of these past masters are collected in thick leather binding. And not a speck of dust has been allowed to cast a blemish on the tomes in this room.

I have obviously entered the sanctum of a keeper of the German spirit and tradition, here in the Humboldt University's 'Institut für Erziehungswissenschaften'. Through the window one can see the recently restored Bodemuseum on Museum Island. Adjacent is the famous Pergamon Museum, across from which Hegel's childhood home was found until it was destroyed in the bombings during the Second World War. In the throes of a slight bout of time warp sickness, I sit down and browse a bit in a random book.

Slightly delayed, Professor Benner enters the office to greet me. He launches into an explanation of how he has developed a new test that will be useful to test pupils in other and 'more complex' forms of knowledge than the PISA set of tests. Actually, I had planned to talk to the professor about Wilhelm von Humboldt and his part in the establishment of the modern German university, and his contribution to the way we legitimise knowledge. Humboldt was instrumental in the establishment of the university in Berlin in 1810, the university which has since become renowned as the birthplace of the modern university. To Humboldt, studying was a search for new insight, and research was primarily a matter of self-formation. Therefore, the role of the university was to facilitate this formation. The humboldtian university's importance for contemporary universities is beyond discussion. But how about the humboldtian 'knowledge'?

Dietrich Benner quickly begins to explain the necessity of a certain basic knowledge in order to give Humboldt his proper place in the history books. "I cannot do an interview with someone who is unaware of the different types of knowledge at play here," he says, and goes on to elaborate on the fact that you must be able to identify six different types of knowledge in order to have a meaningful conversation about the subject at hand.

The six forms of knowledge
"The first type of knowledge, the one I would call experienced understanding, is intimately connected to the lived experience and to the body. Aristotle defined this type of knowledge in a teleological context, but nowadays we would probably go with Husserl, and consider it an immediate phenomenology that uses the experienced as material for forming an opinion about the world we live in," says Dietrich Benner.

"The second form is the scientistic, one you find in Galileo and Newton, and which represent the predominant understanding of the concept of science today. The third form would be the historically re-constructive, which adopts a hermeneutic tradition to exact knowledge from the existing corpus of texts and knowledge."

The fourth type of knowledge is what Dietrich Benner calls ideology-criticism; this is knowledge that examines the structure of the ideas and prejudices that underlie existing social structures. Karl Marx and the Frankfurter-school are prominent representatives of this tradition. The fifth, called prerequisite-critical, examines the conditions for and limitations of knowledge, in line with Hume's and Kant's philosophical endeavours, according to professor Benner. The sixth and final form of knowledge is the utilitarian approach, one that evaluates knowledge according to function and application.

"The scientistic form of knowledge has become the dominant modus, one that has very much crowded out the other forms. Take, for instance, our understanding of colours. Each of the six forms of knowledge could be used to describe them, their meaning and their application. The 'experienced understanding' view of colours is radically different from the Newtonian interpretation of colours as specific frequencies in the spectrum. In lived experience, colours can possess depth, be complementary and they can be mixed together. In a subjective perspective, the sum of all colours is not white at all, and their interplay should be understood as Goethe did it rather than as mere figures on a chart."

Legitimate knowledge
The question is, however, whether knowledge can be knowledge without a legitimisation of its status. In Medieval times, people sought to legitimise knowledge by reference to a transcendental order. They would ask: "What does your proof prove?", and "Who determines what constitutes a proof?", which led to the hypothesis of a necessary divine principle. In the Renaissance and during the Industrial Age, people would legitimise scientific efforts by referring to universal notions such as 'the emancipation of the people' or 'progress'.

Are these six the only legitimate expressions of knowledge?
"Transcendental legitimisation of knowledge did not exist in ancient Greece," according to Benner. "The modern categorisation of knowledge into different domains counteract any attempt to formulate a simple reason why knowledge enjoys the status it currently has. The concept of a multitude of knowledge forms does not allow a fundamentalist approach, because it is anti-hierarchic and presupposes that you accept the multitude of perspectives and a wide range of criticism. Of course the different approaches to knowledge points to different potential uses, but the application of knowledge is not the only legitimisation at all. You can't say that the sole function of religion is to provide comfort, just as you can't say that biology only has to do with selection. A modern legitimisation can only be found in the plurality of the various types of criticism." 

Different knowledge about cod quotas
What if the result is a number of separate sub-societies, where you only discuss issues with those you already agree with?

"Then you have to establish new public domains where these issues can be discussed. As an example, we could look at a current social dilemma, that of the possible collapse of the North Sea cod as a result of over-fishing. At the moment, there is no consensus about even who gets to sit at the table when fishing quotas are negotiated. Actually, there isn't even agreement about whether cod quotas can be negotiated, because the cod has been decimated to the point where the biologists advocate a complete ban on fishing this particular fish, a ban that must last for several years to let the population re-establish itself. Fishermen, on the other hand, have an experience-based understanding of the cod, and they argue that there are plenty of cod in the North Sea, because they fail to realise that the reason they catch so many is the improved equipment they use."

"Scientists use scientistic arguments, and they show you graphs of the impending collapse of the cod without admitting that their calculations are incomplete and include unknowns. Politicians apply utilitarian knowledge about workplaces and economical consequences and fail to admit that they have one eye on the next election date as well."

"NGOs frequently apply ideology criticism in their argumentation about power structures and hidden agendas without admitting that genuine conflicts can actually occur without it being the result of evil intentions. Each faction questions the other factions' legitimacy because of their limited outlook and refuses to listen to the others' arguments. Solutions can only be found by recognising all six forms of knowledge as legitimate in a shared public debate where the objective is to reach an agreement without any rules except those everyone can agree to."

Exploring the unknown
What about Wilhelm von Humboldt? How could he, Minister of Bildung that he was, use this differentiation of knowledge forms?

"He certainly was familiar with the experience-based understanding, the scientistic approach and the prerequisite-critical. To Humboldt, the aim was to formulate models for a modern science, one in which the legitimisation, which is to say the claim to represent the truth, was immanent in the very ground rules of scientific endeavour, as well as established as a common anchor-point through a voluntary acceptance of the rules for and participation in the game. This notion of 'knowledge for its own sake' was tied in with the notion of Bildung, which again is closely related to the notion of a public, and defined as a multi-faceted, unfettered and lively interplay between people."

Didn't the word Bildung carry a strong desire to "strengthen the nation, both spiritually and morally", as Humboldt wrote? In Germany, a person is, as in Denmark, primarily defined as a citizen, not just as an inhabitant.

"To Humboldt, the distinction was not between inhabitant and citizen, but between inhabitant and human. The university had no other connection to the state aside from certain formalities regarding the appointment to a professorship. The university was to be the place where people learn to explore the unknown and, through that process, become whole and free people, who can form their own opinion and discuss that opinion in public."

Power, art and knowledge
How was it that the university-fostered Bildung became interpreted as Forschung and Wissen and as the ability to exchange opinions at a seminar, when art never achieved the same status? Humboldt was, after all, a friend of Schiller, who held art to be above all else in importance.

"I would think that Humboldt considered art as something you could not apply some method to within the framework of a university. But then again, Humboldt was the founder of the university, after all. Humboldt believed in a tripartite separation of fields of knowledge in the shape of the Hohenzollern Castle, today re-built in the shape of a cardboard façade across the Unter den Linden, the New Museum, adjacent to the cathedral across from the castle, and thirdly the Humboldt University right next to that. This separation into power, art and knowledge has been copied in many other countries, and to this day, most universities have no arts education – we leave that to academies of fine arts."

If you were in charge, how should a neo-Humboldtian university be organised today?
"I believe that the foundation should be a differentiation of knowledge into the six domains I already described, and focus should be on the inter-disciplinary application of knowledge," professor Benner explains. He continues to say that our present society is moving towards an increased dominance by technical and economical forms of knowledge that place more stock in rational and functional arguments than in the softer and more traditional values.

"Religion is on its way out," he thinks, "but we humans depend very much on the notion of something absolute, and this should not be under-estimated. The absolute cannot be replaced by political, emancipatory or ethical values. In this new century we face the daunting task of re-finding tradition or, failing that, to invent new artificial traditions of our own to replace that which was lost."

Unfortunately we have no time left to explore the concept of artificial tradition, but on my way out of the university I decide for myself that the professor probably referred to a restoration of our spiritual values, not as a thin veneer to cover an old structure, but with a full recognition of past values. Because even though Museum Island, the Humboldt University and the Hohenzollern Castle are being rebuilt in all their past splendour, Hegel's childhood home is likely gone forever.

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About Dietrich Benner
Dietrich Benner is a Professor in general education at the Institut für Erziehungswissenschaft at the Humboldt University in Berlin, and has for a number of years been a recognised voice in the German debate on Bildung and educational research.
Visit Dietrich Benners personal homepage.

 

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The author

If you would like to contact Robin Engelhardt, please send an email to quarterly@dpu.dk