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Rh the highest reality. (Versuch einer Transcendentalphilosophie, 1790. Philosophisches Wörterbuch, 1791. Versuch einer neuen Logik, 1794.)

There is a close analogy between Reinhold, Maimon and Friedrich Schiller (1759- 1805). Schiller, like the others, ran away from his cramping environment (the Military school at Stuttgart). And then, after the writing of his first sentimental essays, he devoted himself more thoroughly to the Kantian literature. He greatly admired Kant’s indefatigable research and the exalted, ideal character of his ethics. But from his point of view Kant had nevertheless over-emphasized the antitheses of human nature, and severed the moral nature too completely from the actual development and ambitions of men. Duty appeared to be a kind of compelling force which man's higher nature exercises over his lower nature. Schiller therefore asserts that harmony is the highest criterion in life as well as in art. All the elements in the nature of man must cooperate in his actions. In order to be good, an act must not only bear the badge of dignity, but likewise of gracefulness. Morality is slavish as long as it consists of self-command (Über Anmut und Würde, 1793). Schiller elaborates this theory more fully in his Briefen über aesthetische Erziehung (1795) which shows a decided agreement with Rousseau’s problem of civilization (which likewise exerted a profound influence on the reflections of Kant). The important thing is to surcharge the spontaneous fullness of the natural life with the independence and freedom of human life, the devotion to everchanging circumstances with the unity of personality, the matter-impulse with the form-impulse. The solution of this problem is found in play, which is the beginning and prototype of art. It is only in