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  • Essay / Beauty and the Unattainable - 813

    Schiller considers that something is missing in his time, that is to say, that it is missing something that is essential for all human beings. In other words, the “part” of the “whole” is missing. Friedrich Schiller in the sixth letter of his text "On the Aesthetic Education of Man in a Series of Letters" gives an example of a culture that was not lacking. This culture, the Hellenic Greeks, seemed to manage a perfect balance between art and wisdom, and their connection to nature, because they realized that art and wisdom was not something that detached them from nature , but that they were the path itself that one had to take to find one's way to nature. differently. “For they [the Greeks] were wedded to all the delights of art and all the dignities of wisdom, without, however, like us, falling prey to their seduction” (31). Schiller believes that not only do these elements of human nature come together to create a better society, but they also work together through art to connect the soul and spirit of man. Schiller's philosophical fascination with aesthetics goes beyond a critique of art or even a philosophical discussion of the Beautiful or the Sublime; Schiller seems to be interested in man's realization of his freedom and himself. Schiller fails to provide a clear analysis of the relationship between the beautiful and the sublime. His writings can enable the reader to conceive of aesthetics simply as a means to a higher end, the moral state. This means that instead of considering aesthetic education as an end in itself, he calls on man to use aesthetics in an attempt to achieve the ideal. Since his work is an aesthetic object due to its effect on the reader, it evokes feelings and leaves the reader free, it is also a...... middle of paper ......s relation to the philosophy and finally to the Truth. Indeed, in identifying aesthetics with an ideal man, Schiller is incoherent. The question of aesthetics becomes the question of the being of the ideal man, in which we each have an ideal, if we are to believe Schiller, which, according to Schiller, is never fully acquired. Although he prescribed no particular plan for achieving his ideal, he seemed to believe that the promotion of aesthetic culture was the next step in the evolution of civilization and humanity. We must take the aesthetic path, he says, because it is through beauty that man walks towards freedom. Despite its lack of precise definitions, inconsistencies and unclear purpose, "On the Aesthetic Education of Man" is a brilliant piece that is just as confusing as all philosophies but written as beautifully as any great work literary..