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 sensuous impulsion excludes from its subject all autonomy and
freedom; the formal impulsion excludes all dependence and passivity. But
the exclusion of freedom is physical necessity; the exclusion of
passivity is moral necessity. Thus the two impulsions subdue the mind:
the former to the laws of nature, the latter to the laws of reason. It
results from this that the instinct of play, which unites the double
action of the two other instincts, will content the mind at once morally
and physically. Hence, as it suppresses all that is contingent, it will
also suppress all coercion, and will set man free physically and
morally. When we welcome with effusion some one who deserves our
contempt, we feel painfully that _nature is constrained_. When we have a
hostile feeling against a person who commands our esteem, we feel
painfully the _constraint of reason_. But if this person inspires us
with interest, and also wins our esteem, the constraint of feeling
vanishes together with the constraint of reason, and we begin to love
him, that is to say, to play, to take recreation, at once with our
inclination and our esteem.
Moreover, as the sensuous impulsion controls us physically, and the
formal impulsion morally, the former makes our formal constitution
contingent, and the latter makes our material constitution contingent,
that is to say, there is contingence in the agreement of our happiness
with our perfection, and reciprocally. The instinct of play, in which
both act in concert, will render both our formal and our material
constitution contingent; accordingly, our perfection and our happiness
in like manner. And on the other hand, exactly because it makes _both of
them_ contingent, and because the contingent disappears with necessity,
it will suppress this contingence in both, and will thus give form to
matter and reality to form. In proportion that it will lessen the
dynamic influence of feeling and passion, it will place them in harmony
with rational ideas, and by taking from the laws of reason their moral
constraint, it will reconcile them with the interest of the senses.
LETTER XV.
I approach continually nearer to the end to which I lead you, by a path
offering few attractions. Be pleased to follow me a few steps further,
and a large horizon will open up to you, and a delightful prospect will
reward you for the labor of the way.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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