Educating Oneself Through the Other The Philosophy of Improvement, Humanism, and Self-Consciousness In G.W.F. Hegel and Germaine de Staël

This paper proposes an unexpected convergence between Hegel and Staël based on their respective reflections on education in Germany in the 1810s. In both cases, their view shows how making a detour by what is foreign to us is a necessary step in the learning process allowing for the development of the child, her improvement, and self-consciousness. This pedagogical reflection is also of significant importance for understanding the logic at work in the general philosophies of our authors.