Schiller's Aesthetic Freedom and the Challenges of Aesthetic Education

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, to analyze Schiller's notion of aesthetic "freedom" throughout his aesthetic dissertations, a notion which is closely related to his famous theory about the "aesthetic State" as the ultimate form for the aesthetic education, a theory sketched out at the end of his 1794 Aesthetic Letters (or his Letters on the Aesthetical Education of Man). Second, to address Schiller's critical reception of Enlightenment's views on beauty, particularly Kant's, who is Schiller's main source of inspiration and criticism in aesthetics, emphasizing the relation of his own theory of beauty to aesthetic education. Third, to discuss the challenges that Schiller's theory brings to the idea of "aesthetic education" in the aesthetic theories of the Enlightenment. Again, our main source for criticism will be Kant.

A Brief Analysis of the Infiltration of Aesthetic Education in Art Courses in Colleges and Universities

“…However, compared with intellectual education, due to the limitation of the development stage, aesthetic education has not received enough attention. In the new era and new journey, the synchronization of material civilization and spiritual civilization is an issue that we pay more attention to, and people's spiritual needs are getting more and more attention [5].…”

“…Schiller had proposed that beauty be seen as an expression of "aesthetic freedom" in contrast to "nature," and a sense of the sublime as an expression of our moral independence. Both beauty and sublime freedom are part of aesthetic education, and their combination can perfect aesthetic education and make people's minds transcend the realm of the senses [5].…”