Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (10 November 1759 – 9 May 1805)

Friedirch schiller's series of letter., On the aesthetics education of man. I have read the first five letter as written in the task. In the first letter i thought Schiller wants to highlight that the aesthetics is in the human nature, it is beauty and art. 

"i shall be speaking of a subject which is closely related to the better portion of our happiness, and not far removed from the moral nobility of human nature".(first letter) 

The quote state that schiller's aesthetics philosophy is part of our life. Consists natural human being and sometimes changes but it still not to far from the human moral or nature life. The changes is because of the surrounding and time maybe. so do this."i shall be pleading the cause of beauty before a heart that perceives and exercises her whole power, and, in an enquiry where one is compelled to appeal as often to feelings as to principles, will take upon itself the heaviest part of my labour."(first letter)  


Schiller also said that ,"i will, to be sure, not conceal from you the fact that it is Kantian principles upon which the propositions that follow will for the most part be based: but you must attribute it to my incapacity, not to those principles, if in the course of these enquiries you should be reminded of any particular school of philosophy.". It shows that he is confidently agree with Kantian but probably not at all. Schiller and Kantian had the difference theory, both of them is a philosopher but Schiller still can accept it.



In the second letter, word "art" and "freedom" attracted me.

"The course of events has given a direction to the spirit of the age which threatens to remove it even futher from the art of the ideal."

"This Art must abandon actuality and sour with becoming boldness above necessity; for art is a daughter of freedom, and must receive her commission from the needs of spirits, not from the exigency of matter"

why schiller said "art is a daughter of freedom"., maybe there some kind of relation between art and freedom connected through the imagination or a spirit that can appear through the art work.

"The fact that i am resisting this delightful temptation, and allowing beauty to have precedence of freedom, i believe i can not merely defend by inclination but justify on principle."

He also state that beauty is part of freedom,  that just can be judge by the principle. At the end of second letter he start connecting freedom-beauty and the political.



Third letter., "Nature begins with Man no better than with the rest of her works: she acts for him where he cannot yet act as a free intelligence for himself."

"The great consideration is, therefore, that physical society in time may not cease for an instant while moral society is being formed in idea, that for the sake of human dignity its very existence may not be endangered."

"The important thing, therefore, is to dissociate caprice from the physical and freedom from the moral character; to make the first conformable with law, the seconds dependent on impressions; remove the former somewhat further from matter in order to bring the letter somewhere nearer to it" 

Through the schiller's quotes we know the objective of the material drive is physical reality, while the objective of the moral drive is formal reality. The aesthetic ideal of beauty is defined by a unity of physical and formal reality. the first and second character mention above related to develop the third character it is the physical and the moral - paving the way to a transition from the sway of more force to that of law, without preventing the proper development of the moral character, but serving rather as a pledge in the sensuous sphere of a morality in the unseen.
Fourth letter, he guarantee the third character(which related to these another two character in second letter) can permenently complete the transformation of it. though

"this much is certain: only predominance of such a character among a people can complete without harm the transformation of a state according to moral principles and only such a character too can guarantee its perpetuation"

" totality of character must therefore be found in a people that is capable and worthy of exchanging the state of need for the state of freedom" 

in this letter, mostly he describe about the third character that the state need., as the quotes above.


lastly, the fifth letter.,

"we disown nature in her rightful sphere only to experience her tyranny in the sphere of morality, and in resisting her influences we recieve from her our principle"

"we submit our free judgement to its despotic sanction, our feeling to its fantastic customs, our will to its seductions; only our caprice do we assert against its sacred rights." 

above some of the words in the letter that attract me most from others., the spirit shown that they work together towards their principle.


Conclusion is aesthetic education can produce not only an increased level of awareness or receptivity to the world but can also produce an increased intensity in the determining activity of the intellect which enables the individual to experience physical and spiritual freedom. Either beauty-art-freedom-political-human character all these words art working together toward their own spirits.