If something possesses no capacity for activity whatever, it is nothing; it may be wholly penetrated, but it cannot be touched. Therefore passivity and reaction are everywhere equal.

This distinction was cleared up by one of the leading contemporary German Humboldt scholars Jürgen Trabant in his works in both German and French. In his essay on the 'Theory of Human Education' he answered the question as to the 'demands which must be made of a nation of an age and of the human race'. 283).

Humboldt was born in Potsdam Margraviate of Brandenburg and died in Tegel Province of Brandenburg. He is especially remembered as a linguist who made important contributions to the philosophy of language and to the theory and practice of education. In particular he is widely recognized as having been the architect of the Prussian education system which was used as a model for education systems in countries such as the United States and Japan.