ABSTRACT
In 1799 Friedrich Schlegel, the ringleader of the early romantic circle, stated, with uncommon and uncharacteristic clarity, his view of the summum bonum, the supreme value in life: “The highest good, and [the source of] everything that is useful, is culture” (Bildung).1 Since the German word Bildung is virtually synonomous with education, Schlegel might as well have said that the highest good is education.
