Letters Upon The Aesthetic
Education Of Man is written by Freidrich Schiller in 1794. In these letters, Freidrich
Schiller gives the philosophic basis about doctrine of art and indicates
clearly and persuasively his view of the place in beauty in human life. Freidrich
Schiller written these letters base on Kantian principles. There have 27
letters that have written by Freidrich Schiller and I have study 5 letters from
it, start from letter 1 till letter 5.
In letter 1, Freidrich Schiller had asked
permission for doing a researchs upon beauty and art. The reason he want do
this research because he keenly sensible of the importance as well as of the
charm and dignity of this undertaking. He is doing his research base on Kantian
principles. Through Kantian principles, mankind can value a thing from feeling.
But this principle has disagree by the philosopher. Why the philosopher
disagree The Kantian principles? This is because philosopher value a thing base
on analysis, like the chemist, the philosopher finds synthesis only by
analysis, or the spontaneous work of nature only through the torture of art. They
cannot accepted value a thing from a feeling because there have no any analysis
or prove through feeling. This is contrary with their philosopher principle. So the philosopher disagree the
ideas which predominate in the practical part of Kant's system. Mankind should
accept Kantian principle, they should follow their feeling to value a thing and
not follow the philosopher principle. This is because if mankind follow the
philosopher principle, they will value a thing renders truth visible to the
understanding conceals it from the feelings, for, unhappily, understanding
begins by destroying the object of the inner sense before it can appropriate
the object. Therefore to value a thing, we should follow our feeling, cause
this feeling is real and we can be honest to ourselves. We do not need any
analysis to help us value a thing either beautiful or not.
When the moral world offers matter
of so much higher interest, and when the spirit of philosophical inquiry is so
stringently challenged by the circumstances of that times to occupy itself with
the most perfect of all works of art - the establishment and structure of a
true political freedom, philosopher questioned the utility of arts toward the prevailing
issues of morality and politics raised in that time. The eye of philosopher as
well as of the man of the world are anxiously turned to the theatre of
political events, where it is presumed the great destiny of man is to be played
out. Since art is abstract and has to leave reality, philosophers think that art
not that important for solving issues; rather, they are more concerned of the
use if science in solving the issues presented. But, in reality, art is related
with political freedom. For art, it is the daughter of freedom, and it requires
its prescriptions and rules to be furnished by the necessity of spirits and not
by the matter, it has to raise itself bodily above necessity and neediness. Art
is less foreign to the needs than to the tastes of our age; nay, that, to
arrive at a solution even in the political problem, the road of aesthetics must
be pursued, because it is through beauty that we just can arrive at freedom.
Man are different from others
creatures. This is because man will grow mature to reach a certain maturity to
decide something for themselves. This can see when we are raised from slumber
in the senses, we are dependent to others. When we grow up, we will become more
mature and we will start recovers our childhood by an artificial process, that,
this is not given by our experience, but established by the necessary laws and
conditions of our reason. Then we can give ourselves a choice that we could not
make it when we are still a child. As a conclusion, a man will dependent before
he reaches maturity and learn independent, the same goes to moral freedom. A
man should be subjected under moral slavery first before he reaches maturity to be a man of moral
freedom. There are two kinds phenomena of man, one is natural man which
represent existence of society and moral man represent ideal of society. There are
transition occur from one to another when reason collides with the natural
character of man. Reconciliation is required to balance between the duo: to
prevent physical society from ceasing for a moment in time, while the moral
society is being formed in the idea; in other words, to prevent its existence
from being placed in jeopardy, for the sake of the moral dignity of man. Props
must be sought for to support society and keep it going while it is made
independent of the natural condition from which it is sought to emancipate it.
These props are neither natural man nor moral man.
There are two types of man which were internal man and subjective
man. Besides that, man also can oppose to twofold manner, that is savage and barbarian.
For man who are savage, they will feeling rule over their principles, look down
upon the arts, and acknowledges nature as his despotic ruler, while for the man
who barbarian, they let their principle destroy their feeling, laughing nature
and be a slave of their senses. These are different with cultivated man which
makes friend with nature and honour with friendship. Therefore, totality of
character should found in people that can exchange the state of nature of
necessity for that of freedom.
After study these letters, I find out that there are
relationships between the beauty of arts and human being. For art, we can
follow our feeling to decide either it beautiful or not. We do not need any
analysis to determine a thing either it beautiful or not, it our freedom to
choose it, no one can force us. While for human being, we can decide thing
through choices when we reach maturity level, and when we participate in
political problem, the beauty of art is useful although the beauty of art is abstract.
But through imagination, we just can realize about the importance that appear in
the problem.
In conclusion, aesthetic s and
humanity cannot be separated. They are not mutually exclusive but are complementary.
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