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
But there is also in man a _second_ order of phenomena, which are
subject to the influence and empire of the will, or which may be
considered at all events as being of such a kind that will might _always
have prevented_ them, consequently phenomena for which the _person_ and
not instinct is responsible. It is the office of instinct to watch with
a blind zeal over the interests of the senses; but it is the office of
the _person_ to hold instinct in proper bounds, out of respect for the
moral law. Instinct in itself does not hold account of any law; but the
person ought to watch that instinct may not infringe in any way on the
decrees of reason. It is therefore evident that it is not for instinct
alone to determine unconditionally all the phenomena that take place in
man in the state of affection, and that on the contrary the will of man
can place limits to instinct. When instinct only determines all
phenomena in man, there is nothing more that can recall the _person_;
there is only a physical creature before you, and consequently an
animal; for every physical creature subject to the sway of instinct is
nothing else. Therefore, if you wish to represent the person itself, you
must propose to yourself in man certain phenomena that have been
determined in opposition to instinct, or at least that have not been
determined by instinct. That they have not been determined by instinct
is sufficient to refer them to a higher source, the moment we see that
instinct would no doubt have determined them in another way if its force
had not been broken by some obstacle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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