ASSIGNMENT 1

J.C Friedrich Von Schiller is a German dramatist, poet, and literary theorist. He is one of the greatest figures in German literature. The Letters is one that he wrote on ethics and aesthetics which was his point of view regarding the relationship of beauty in human life.

In the 5 part of Letters, he asserts that it is possible to elevate the moral character of a people, by first touching their souls with beauty. Based on the comment to Kant's philosophy, Schiller transcends it as being followed overall. In his opinion, the nature moral instinct has given to man in order to serve as a guide and teacher until his enlightened intelligence gives him maturity. It also can be concluded that a human’s being emotions have been educated by reason.

According to his aesthetic philosophy, human nature consists of two parts of being: that is which persists, and that which is changes. The human self is that which persists, and its determining Condition is that which changes. The self and its Condition are distinct in finite being, but are unified in Absolute Being.

Schiller says that the unchanging self is not determined by time, but that time is determined by the unchanging self. Every human being is situated in a particular situation. The pure Intelligence within the Person is endless, but the Condition in which the Person finds himself or herself is determined by time. A person’s succession determines by the time and his own self awareness.

Schiller asserts that Absolute Being is necessary to self awareness through itself. A Person and Condition cannot be defined by finite being, but are defined by the Absolute Being. Human being is the finite beings, must confront not only the task of trying to bring the necessity within themselves to reality, but also the task of trying to subject the reality outside of themselves as a necessity. These two important and were challenging tasks are determined by two forces in human nature: the sensual drive, and the rational drive. The sensual drive is toward physical reality, the rational drive is toward formal reality.

Schiller also asserts that Person and Condition are reciprocally related realms of being, The more autonomy or self-determining activity is transferred to the Person, the less that the Person is subject to changing forces in the world. Thus,it is was in a vice versa too. Aesthetic activity is derived from a unity of Person and Condition, in that there must be a reality belonging to the Person if he or she has self-determining activity, and there must also be a reality belonging to the world if the Person must be situated in a Condition.

According to Schiller, aesthetic education can produce not only an increased level of awareness or receptivity to the world but can also produce an increased intensity in the determining activity of the intellect. The aesthetic impulse, or "play drive," can thus combine passive and active forces, which can produce a unity of feeling and reason.

If it is intensity is transferred from the active function of the intellect to the passive function of sensation, then the receptive faculty of sensation may predominate over the determining activity of the intellect. If the intensity is transferred from the passive function of sensation to the active function of the intellect, then the determining activity of the intellect may predominate over the receptive faculty of sensation. Thus, the aesthetic ideal is achieved by producing a balance between feeling and reason.

While the sensual drive exerts a physical constraint, the rational drive exerts a moral constraint. While the exclusion of freedom from the function of the sensual drive implies physical necessity, the exclusion of passivity from the function of the rational drive implies moral necessity.

The goal of the sensual drive is to the reality of physical, while the goal of the rational drive is to the formal reality. The aesthetic ideal of beauty is thus can be concluded as a unity of physical and formal reality.

Schiller asserts that beauty is an aesthetic unity of thought and feeling, which is a fully reflection, of reason and intuition, of activity and passivity, of form and matter. The attachment of this unity enables the human nature to be fully aware and fulfilled. Beauty may lead to logical unity. However, when truth is perceived, feeling may follow thought, or thought may follow the feeling. Thus, when beauty is perceived, thought is united with feeling.

According to Schiller, freedom is obtained when the sensual drive and rational drive are fully integrated. The individual can allow both drives to be fully expressed, without being constrained by them. Thus, the state of true aesthetic freedom is achieved by a process of mediation between a passive state of feeling and an active state of thinking.