Friedrich Schiller - On the Aesthetic Education of Man

Précis for Friedrich Schiller “On the Aesthetic Education of Man.”

            The aesthetic mode frees and unites man by removing artificial limits imputed by social convention and it can expand humanity’s knowledge through the powers of imagination and beauty.  The aesthetic mode is natural and intrinsic to man, and it manifests freedom because it works independently from natural, social or moral laws.  

Beauty manifests in conditions where man’s essential needs have been surpassed.  It is found through the engagement of the world, opening the senses to new experiences and enjoying relationships formed with other people.   This cycle returns on itself, and it strengthens the want for further exploration and enjoyment.  Beauty is realized through “delight in semblance,” or the use of the playful imagination to form abstractions from imitations and representations.

Delight in semblance demands the separation of pure reality and truth, from our perceptions, when we are forming understanding.  Reliance on the pure material, or the pure conceptual, inhibits the imagination and prevents further understanding of culture or the human condition.   Imagination comes from within, and it has the unique ability to play while disregarding outside forces and cultural influences.   The imagination works by stretching the mind during sensory experiences and then forming new ideas through abstractions and associations.  People realize the aesthetic mode when they start abstracting new ideas through their imaginations.

Nature, through our senses and interpretation, forms our knowledge base of the world.  Honest semblance occurs when one can differentiate between reality and their notions of reality.  Once achieved, the imagination has the unlimited capacity to play with and combine concepts to form further abstractions.  It is the differentiation between reality and the abstract ideas of reality that preserves the truth.  Materially or conceptually, one knows they only have the idea of something, not the pure thing itself.

People with honest semblance have an understanding of taste.  They see past the superficial and search for the deeper and more satisfying elements of life.  Their imagination is unrestricted.  The only threat to honest semblance is public opinion; those people that can only understand the material by the material, or believe in absolute truths without a basis in the material.  People living in these extremes lack the aesthetic mode and are unable to form deeper meaning of the human condition.  There is always conflict between honest semblance and ignorance.  However, there is always freedom as long as we are willing to use our imagination on our own terms.

Nature provides people with more than they need.  It is within these abundances that people are able to free themselves from want, and the material, and engage the imagination.  With the further removal of external pressures, people are able to liberate their imagination.  What starts as the first semblances of imagination transforms into the full aesthetic mode.  What was first a need and appreciated only in its utility shifts to appreciation of form and charms. Form and imagination supersede function.  The aesthetic mode, through disinterest or undirected pleasure, returns on itself and becomes a necessity.

Full use of the imagination, or honest semblance, requires the removal of all outside limitations.  “Dynamic state of rights” means the manifestation of freedom through freedom.  Dynamic state of rights does not work if one limits their activities or curbs their desires.  The dynamic state allows the formation of societies, morals and taste.  Beauty, and the aesthetic mode unite culture as universal notions can manifest from the individual.  All other forms of perceptions divide man as they are based in the sensuous or the spiritual.  These concepts are derived from the individual and cannot be universalized.  The aesthetic mode has the capacity to “draw out the mysteries of science,” and transform them into common knowledge that serves all of humanity.  The unrealized bounty of the aesthetic mode is predicated on beauty, honest semblance, the will to explore and the courage to stand against the limiting forces of social convention.

Works Cited

Schiller, Friedrich. On The Aesthetic Education of Man.  Mineola: Dover Publishing, Inc. 2004. Print