On the relation of recognition and Bildung in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit

While Hegel's conceptions of recognition and Bildung continue to attract scholars' attention, the linkage between the two is often ignored. Yet these two conceptions are intimately linked in Hegel's system and thus cannot be properly understood if discussed separately without taking into consideration their close relationship and interconnection. This paper attempts to fulfill this gap by reconstructing the complex interrelation between the two conceptions in the Phenomenology of Spirit. It shows that Hegel uses both recognition and Bildung to develop his concept of the self as the self-cultivating agency capable of achieving self-knowledge only through and within the universal whole. In this sense, the movement of recognition is part of the complex process of Bildung and is its indispensable element. Deriving its significance from its contribution to the formation (Bildung) of the self as active subjectivity, recognition points to the fact that subjectivity is mediated through relations with other people. Recognizing the importance of these relations involves acknowledging individuals' mutual interdependence grounded in intersubjective interactions, only within which the process of Bildung becomes possible.