Aesthetical and philosophical essays : $b introducing the dissertation on the "connection between the animal and spiritual man"Schiller, Friedrich
Philosophy
Aesthetical and philosophical essays : $b introducing the dissertation on the "connection between the animal and spiritual man"
Schiller, Friedrich
Aesthetics; Philosophy
The dynamic state can only make society simple possibly by subduing
nature through nature; the moral (ethical) state can only make it
morally necessary by submitting the will of the individual to the
general will. The æsthetic state alone can make it real, because it
carries out the will of all through the nature of the individual. If
necessity alone forces man to enter into society, and if his reason
engraves on his soul social principles, it is beauty only that can give
him a social _character_; taste alone brings harmony into society,
because it creates harmony in the individual. All other forms of
perception divide the man, because they are based exclusively either in
the sensuous or in the spiritual part of his being. It is only the
perception of beauty that makes of him an entirety, because it demands
the co-operation of his two natures. All other forms of communication
divide society, because they apply exclusively either to the receptivity
or to the private activity of its members, and therefore to what
distinguishes men one from the other. The æsthetic communication alone
unites society because it applies to what is common to all its members.
We only enjoy the pleasures of sense as individuals, without the nature
of the race in us sharing in it; accordingly, we cannot generalize our
individual pleasures, because we cannot generalize our individuality. We
enjoy the pleasures of knowledge as a race, dropping the individual in
our judgment; but we cannot generalize the pleasures of the
understanding, because we cannot eliminate individuality from the
judgments of others as we do from our own. Beauty alone can we enjoy
both as individuals and as a race, that is, as representing a race. Good
appertaining to sense can only make one person happy, because it is
founded on inclination, which is always exclusive; and it can only make
a man partially happy, because his real personality does not share in
it. Absolute good can only render a man happy conditionally, for truth
is only the reward of abnegation, and a pure heart alone has faith in a
pure will. Beauty alone confers happiness on all, and under its
influence every being forgets that he is limited.
Taste does not suffer any superior or absolute authority, and the sway
of beauty is extended over appearance. It extends up to the seat of
reason’s supremacy, suppressing all that is material. It extends down to
where sensuous impulse rules with blind compulsion, and form is
undeveloped. Taste ever maintains its power on these remote borders,
where legislation is taken from it. Particular desires must renounce
their egotism, and the agreeable, otherwise tempting the senses, must in
matters of taste adorn the mind with the attractions of grace.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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