Bildung as the Condition of Possibility of the Ideal Life in Modern Philosophical Anthropology

This article examines the possibility of rethinking the concept of the ideal life in modernity through the concept of Bildung. Its central problem arises from a crisis caused by the collapse of premodern metaphysical horizons and the establishment of the autonomy of the subject. Within this crisis, a unified and binding conception of the good life is weakened, giving rise to a lasting tension among individual freedom, historical plurality, and the need for normativity.

The article shows that the three dominant responses to this condition—perfectionism, self-actualization, and relativism—each face a structural limitation. Perfectionism fixes a rigid model of the human being; self-actualization reduces human formation to a predominantly inward process; and relativism weakens any shared horizon of judgment and meaning.

Against these approaches, the article argues that Bildung should be understood as the condition of possibility of thinking about the ideal life. Conceptual analysis shows that Bildung is grounded in a fundamental tension between force and form, individuality and a shared world, and historical openness and normativity. From this perspective, the ideal life cannot be understood as a final model. Rather, it functions as a regulative horizon that directs human formation without becoming fixed in a static form.

The article ultimately shows that Bildung preserves normative judgment without falling into dogmatism, and historicity and plurality without collapsing into the absence of standards. Thus, Bildung is reconstructed not merely as an educational concept but as a philosophical structure for rethinking the relation between modern existence and the ideal life.