Wilhelm von Humboldt

Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand von Humboldt (/ˈhʌmboʊlt/,[6] also US: /ˈhʊmboʊlt/,[7] UK: /ˈhʌmbɒlt/;[8] German: [ˈvɪlhɛlm fɔn ˈhʊmbɔlt];[9][10][11] 22 June 1767 – 8 April 1835) was a Prussian philosopher, linguist, government functionary, diplomat, and founder of the Humboldt University of Berlin, which was named after him in 1949 (and also after his younger brother, Alexander von Humboldt, a naturalist).

Wilhelm von Humboldt
Portrait by Thomas Lawrence
Born	(1767-06-22)22 June 1767 Potsdam, Prussia
Died	8 April 1835(1835-04-08) (aged 67) Tegel, Prussia
Education	University of Frankfurt (Oder) (no degree) University of Göttingen (no degree)
Spouse	Caroline von Dacheröden
Era	19th-century philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Berlin Romanticism[1] Romantic linguistics[2] 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
Influences Immanuel Kant, J. G. Fichte,[3] Christian Jakob Kraus,[4] Johann Gottfried Herder[4][5]
Influenced August Schleicher, Valentin Voloshinov, Alexander Potebnja, Joxe Azurmendi, John Stuart Mill, Noam Chomsky, Ernst Cassirer
Signature

He is especially remembered as a linguist who made important 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.[12] 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.[13]