A classic of 18th-century thought, Schiller’s treatise on the role of art in society ranks among German philosophy’s most profound works. An important contribution to the history of ideas, it employs a political analysis of contemporary society—and of the French Revolution, in particular—to define the relationship between beauty and art. Schiller’s proposal of art as fundamental to the development of society and the individual remains an influential concept, and this volume offers his philosophy’s clearest, most relevant expression. Translated and with (...) an introduction by Reginald Snell. (shrink)

Schiller's 1795 essay on the educative function of art is one of the most important contributions to the history of ideas in modern times. This English-German parallel text edition includes a long analytical introduction and extensive notes.

Preface--I. The definition of pragmatism and humanism--II. From Plato to Protagoras.--III. The relations of logic and psychology.--IV. Truth and Mr. Bradley.--V. The ambiguity of truth.--VI. The nature of truth.--VII. The making of truth.--VIII. Absolute truth and absolute reality.--XI. Empiricism and the absolute.--X. Is absolute idealism solipsistic? XI. Absolutism and the dissociation of personality.--XII. Absolutism and religion.--XIII. The papyri of Philonous, I-II.--XIV. I. Protogoras the humanist.--XV. II A dialogue concerning gods and priests.--XVI. Faith, reason, and religion.--XVII. The progress of psychical research.--XVIII. (...) Freedom.--XIX. The making of reality.--XX. Dreams and idealism.-- Index. (shrink)

Friedrich Schiller: Über Anmut und Würde Edition Holzinger. Taschenbuch Berliner Ausgabe, 2016 Vollständiger, durchgesehener Neusatz mit einer Biographie des Autors bearbeitet und eingerichtet von Michael Holzinger Entstanden 1793, Erstdruck in: Neue Thalia (Leipzig), 2. Jg., 1793, Heft 2. Textgrundlage ist die Ausgabe: Friedrich Schiller: Sämtliche Werke, Auf Grund der Originaldrucke herausgegeben von Gerhard Fricke und Herbert G. Göpfert in Verbindung mit Herbert Stubenrauch, Band 1-5, 3. Auflage, München: Hanser, 1962. Herausgeber der Reihe: Michael Holzinger Reihengestaltung: Viktor Harvion Umschlaggestaltung unter Verwendung (...) des Bildes: Friedrich Schiller (Pastell von Frenzel nach dem Gemälde von Ludovike Simanowitz, 1793) Gesetzt aus der Minion Pro, 11 pt. (shrink)

This is the first English scholarly edition of this pivotal essay, accompanied by the first comprehensive commentary on it.

Our contact with men of distant lands has made possible the notion of universal history. All societies are members of the same human civilization, though at different stages in its development. From the small sum of known past events the universal historian selects only those whose influence on contemporary life has been essential and readily discernible, and moves backward in time toward the origins. This produces an aggregate of world-changes which fit together only in a disconnected and fortuitous way. But (...) his philosophical understanding transforms the aggregate into a coherent whole: the unity of the laws of physical and human nature allows him to infer backward to phenomena which had been left hidden or unrecorded. The universal historian transplants his reasoned harmony into the nature of things, a teleological principle into the course of world history. This elevates our every deed to immortality in the progression toward human perfectibility. (shrink)

The poet and dramatist Friedrich Schiller was also a profound philosopher, who described his work On the Asethetic Education of Man as 'the best thing that I have done in my life'. This impassioned treatise analyses politics, revolution and human nature to define the relationship between beauty, art and morality. Expressed as a series of letters to a patron, it argues that only an aesthetic education--rather than government reform, religion or moral teachings--can achieve a truly free society, and must be (...) placed at the heart of human experience. One of the most important works of German philosophy, its arguments remain as arresting and inspiring as when they were first written. (shrink)

Burning questions.--The humanistic view of life.--Must empiricism be limited?--Truth-seekers and sooth-sayers.--Must pragmatists disagree?--Humanisms and humanism.--Has philosophy any message for the world?--Must philosophy be dull?--Is idealism incurably ambiguous?--The ultra-Gothic Kant.--Goethe and the Faustian way of salvation.--Plato's Phaedo and the ancient hope of immortality.--Plato's Republic.--How far does science need determinism?--The relativity of metaphysics.--Ethics, casuistry, and life.--Prophecy and destiny.--The crumbling British empire.--Can democracy survive?--The possibility of a United States of Europe.--Ant-men or super-men?--Fascisms and dictatorships.--Humanist logic and theory of knowledge.--Multi-valued logics - and others.--Data, (...) datives, and ablatives.--Are all men mortal?--How is "exactness" possible? (shrink)

-The ethical basis of metaphysics.- 'Useless' knowledge.- Truth.- Lotze's monism.- Non-Euclidean geometry and the Kantian a priori.- The metaphysics of the time-process.- Reality and 'idealism.'- Darwinism and design.- The place of pessimism in philosophy.- Concerning Mephistopheles.- On preserving appearances.- Activity and substance.- Humism and humanism.- Solipsism.- Infallibility and toleration.- Freedom and responsibility.- The desire for immortality.- The ethical significance of immortality.- Philosophy and the scientific investigation of a future life.

Preface--I. The definition of pragmatism and humanism--II. From Plato to Protagoras.--III. The relations of logic and psychology.--IV. Truth and Mr. Bradley.--V. The ambiguity of truth.--VI. The nature of truth.--VII. The making of truth.--VIII. Absolute truth and absolute reality.--XI. Empiricism and the absolute.--X. Is absolute idealism solipsistic? XI. Absolutism and the dissociation of personality.--XII. Absolutism and religion.--XIII. The papyri of Philonous, I-II.--XIV. I. Protogoras the humanist.--XV. II A dialogue concerning gods and priests.--XVI. Faith, reason, and religion.--XVII. The progress of psychical research.--XVIII. (...) Freedom.--XIX. The making of reality.--XX. Dreams and idealism.-- Index. (shrink)