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
Accordingly, I repeat it, correct taste disallows all painting of the
affections, however energetic, which rests satisfied with expressing
physical suffering and the physical resistance opposed to it by the
subject, without making visible at the same time the superior principle
of the nature of man, the presence of a super-sensuous faculty. It does
this in virtue of the principle developed farther back, namely, that it
is not suffering in itself, but only the resistance opposed to
suffering, that is pathetic and deserving of being represented. It is
for this reason that all the absolutely extreme degrees of the
affections are forbidden to the artist as well as to the poet. All of
these, in fact, oppress the force that resists from within: or rather,
all betray of themselves, and without any necessity of other symptoms,
the oppression of this force, because no affection can reach this last
degree of intensity as long as the intelligence in man makes any
resistance.
Then another question presents itself. How is this principle of
resistance, this super-sensuous force, manifested in the phenomenon of
the affections? Only in one way, by mastering or, more commonly, by
combating affection. I say _affection_, for sensuousness can also fight,
but this combat of sensuousness is not carried on with the affection,
but with the _cause_ that produces it; a contest which has no moral
character, but is all physical, the same combat that the earthworm,
trodden under foot, and the wounded bull engage in, without thereby
exciting the pathetic. When suffering man seeks to give an expression to
his feelings, to remove his enemy, to shelter the suffering limb, he
does all this in common with the animals, and instinct alone takes the
initiative here, without the will being applied to. Therefore, this is
not an act that emanates from the man himself, nor does it show him as
an intelligence. Sensuous nature will always fight the enemy that makes
it suffer, but it will never fight against itself.
On the other hand, the contest with affection is a contest with
sensuousness, and consequently presupposes something that is distinct
from sensuous nature. Man can defend himself with the help of common
sense and his muscular strength against the object that makes him
suffer; against suffering itself he has no other arms than those of
reason.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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