In 1795, Friedrich Schiller published his letters Über die ästhetische Erziehung des Menschen, On the Aesthetic Education of Man. In the sixth letter, he described what the division of work does to a person: Ewig nur an ein einzelnes kleines Bruchstück des Ganzen gefesselt, bildet sich der Mensch selbst nur als Bruchstück aus. Forever chained to a single small fragment of the whole, man forms himself only as a fragment. Instead of expressing humanity in his nature, Schiller wrote, he becomes merely an imprint of his occupation, of his science. Schiller’s complaint takes for granted that a person’s occupation shapes the whole person.
philosophy
Pluck at My Wreath
In the first part of Also sprach Zarathustra, published in 1883, Friedrich Nietzsche’s Zarathustra says to his disciples: Man vergilt einem Lehrer schlecht, wenn man immer nur der Schüler bleibt. One repays a teacher badly if one always remains only the pupil. Und warum wollt ihr nicht an meinem Kranze rupfen? And why will you not pluck at my wreath?
Thinking While Speaking
Heinrich von Kleist’s essay Über die allmähliche Verfertigung der Gedanken beim Reden, On the gradual making of thoughts while speaking, was probably written in 1805 or 1806 and published only in 1878. It opens with advice to a friend. If you want to know something and cannot find it by thinking alone, speak about it mit dem nächsten Bekannten, der dir aufstößt, with the next acquaintance you happen to meet. Kleist turns a French saying into l’idee vient en parlant, the idea comes while speaking.
Kleist places this thinking aloud in a conversation with a friend, not in a formal meeting.
Simmel on Discretion
In 1908 the sociologist Georg Simmel published a long chapter on the secret in his book Soziologie. He described an ideal sphere around every person. The further a person stands from the center of our personality, he wrote, the more easily we accept that they do not tell us the truth. Of an acquaintance, Simmel said that he knows that we are, not what we are. Die Kenntnis des »Daß«, nicht des »Was« der Persönlichkeit bedingt die »Bekanntschaft«. He defined discretion as the sense of what is right toward the sphere of another person’s immediate life.
Dare to Know
In December 1784, Immanuel Kant published his answer to the question “What is Enlightenment?” in the Berlinische Monatsschrift. It begins: Aufklärung ist der Ausgang des Menschen aus seiner selbstverschuldeten Unmündigkeit. “Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-incurred immaturity.” Kant defined immaturity as the inability to use one’s own understanding without guidance from another. The motto of the Enlightenment, he wrote, is Sapere aude! Have the courage to use your own understanding.
Rule by Knowledge
Max Weber’s Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft (Economy and Society) was published after his death. In it, Weber sums up bureaucratic administration in one sentence: Die bureaukratische Verwaltung bedeutet: Herrschaft kraft Wissen. Bureaucratic administration means rule by virtue of knowledge. This, Weber adds, is its specifically rational character.
No One Has the Right to Obey
Niemand hat das Recht zu gehorchen. No one has the right to obey. The sentence is known as graffiti. Kein Mensch hat das Recht zu gehorchen stands on the Mussolini relief in Bolzano. Both are shortened. On 9 November 1964 Hannah Arendt spoke with the journalist Joachim Fest in a radio interview. They discussed Adolf Eichmann’s claim that he had lived by Kant’s moral precepts. Her words were: Kein Mensch hat bei Kant das Recht zu gehorchen. In Kant, no human being has the right to obey.
The Office Is Not the Home
In Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft (Economy and Society), Max Weber described the features of modern bureaucracy. In principle, he wrote, the modern civil service separates the bureau from the private residence of the official. Bureaucracy sets official activity apart as something distinct from the sphere of private life. German summaries of Weber list this feature as Trennung von Amt und Person, the separation of office and person.
The Effort of the Concept
“Worauf es deswegen bei dem Studium der Wissenschaft ankommt, ist die Anstrengung des Begriffs auf sich zu nehmen.” What matters in the study of science is to take on the effort of the concept. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel wrote this in the preface to the Phenomenology of Spirit, published in 1807. In the same preface he wrote “Das Wahre ist das Ganze,” the true is the whole. He also described impatience, which demands the impossible: “die Erreichung des Ziels ohne die Mittel,” reaching the goal without the means.
Secondary Virtues
In July 1982, during the dispute over the stationing of new NATO missiles, the Social Democrat Oskar Lafontaine answered his own party’s chancellor, Helmut Schmidt. He told the magazine Stern that Schmidt kept speaking of “Pflichtgefühl, Berechenbarkeit, Machbarkeit, Standhaftigkeit,” a sense of duty, predictability, feasibility and steadfastness. Then he went on: “Das sind Sekundärtugenden. Ganz präzis gesagt: Damit kann man auch ein KZ betreiben.” These are secondary virtues. To put it precisely, you can also run a concentration camp with them. German uses the word Sekundärtugend for traits such as diligence, punctuality and reliability. They are useful in daily life. Pursued for their own sake, they have no moral value.
Reliability earns trust in Germany, but Germans also ask what it is used for.