Nicholas Martin
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198159131
- eISBN:
- 9780191673511
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198159131.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
Nietzsche's Die Geburt der Tragodie and Schiller's Asthetische Briefe are two texts that make a vital contribution to the history of aesthetic and cultural theory. This work makes a comparative study ...
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Nietzsche's Die Geburt der Tragodie and Schiller's Asthetische Briefe are two texts that make a vital contribution to the history of aesthetic and cultural theory. This work makes a comparative study of the texts, bringing a mutually illuminating perspective to bear on them. The author counters the widespread belief that Nietzsche and Schiller represent a black-and-white contrast, showing the wide extent of the early Nietzsche's debt to Schiller's aesthetics, and drawing a picture of the common aesthetic ground shared by the two writers. The four key aspects of their aesthetic theories are compared: the diagnoses of cultural crisis; the historical framework of each theory; the catalytic function of the Greek experience in both theories; and the metaphysical and psychological underpinnings by which the theories stand or fall. At the heart of the study lie the claims of both Nietzsche and Schiller for the ‘untimeliness’ of their texts. The author concludes that, whatever the shortcomings of the texts, they remain outstanding and enduringly relevant contributions both to aesthetic theory and to our understanding of what it is to be human.Less
Nietzsche's Die Geburt der Tragodie and Schiller's Asthetische Briefe are two texts that make a vital contribution to the history of aesthetic and cultural theory. This work makes a comparative study of the texts, bringing a mutually illuminating perspective to bear on them. The author counters the widespread belief that Nietzsche and Schiller represent a black-and-white contrast, showing the wide extent of the early Nietzsche's debt to Schiller's aesthetics, and drawing a picture of the common aesthetic ground shared by the two writers. The four key aspects of their aesthetic theories are compared: the diagnoses of cultural crisis; the historical framework of each theory; the catalytic function of the Greek experience in both theories; and the metaphysical and psychological underpinnings by which the theories stand or fall. At the heart of the study lie the claims of both Nietzsche and Schiller for the ‘untimeliness’ of their texts. The author concludes that, whatever the shortcomings of the texts, they remain outstanding and enduringly relevant contributions both to aesthetic theory and to our understanding of what it is to be human.
Malcolm Budd
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199259656
- eISBN:
- 9780191597121
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199259658.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
Consists of four self‐contained essays on the aesthetics of nature, which complement one another by exploring the subject from different points of view. The first is concerned with how the idea of ...
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Consists of four self‐contained essays on the aesthetics of nature, which complement one another by exploring the subject from different points of view. The first is concerned with how the idea of aesthetic appreciation of nature should be understood and proposes that it is best understood as aesthetic appreciation of nature as nature—as what nature actually is. This idea is elaborated by means of accounts of what is meant by nature, what is meant by a response to nature as nature, and what an aesthetic response consists in, and through an examination of the aesthetic relevance of knowledge of nature. The second essay, which is divided into three separate chapters, expounds and critically examines Immanuel Kant's theory of aesthetic judgements about nature. The first of these chapters deals with Kant's account of aesthetic judgements about natural beauty; the second with his claims about the connections between love of natural beauty and morality (which are contrasted with Schiller's claim about love of naive nature); and the third examines his theory of aesthetic judgements about the sublime in nature, rejecting much of Kant's view and proposing an alternative account of the emotion of the sublime. The third essay argues against the assimilation of the aesthetics of nature to that of art, explores the question of what determines the aesthetic properties of a natural item, and attempts to show that the doctrine of positive aesthetics with respect to nature, which maintains that nature unaffected by humanity is such as to make negative aesthetic judgements about the products of the natural world misplaced, is in certain versions false, in others inherently problematic. The fourth essay is a critical survey of much of the most significant recent literature on the aesthetics of nature. Various models of the aesthetic appreciation of nature have been advanced, but none of these is acceptable and, it is argued, no model is needed.Less
Consists of four self‐contained essays on the aesthetics of nature, which complement one another by exploring the subject from different points of view. The first is concerned with how the idea of aesthetic appreciation of nature should be understood and proposes that it is best understood as aesthetic appreciation of nature as nature—as what nature actually is. This idea is elaborated by means of accounts of what is meant by nature, what is meant by a response to nature as nature, and what an aesthetic response consists in, and through an examination of the aesthetic relevance of knowledge of nature. The second essay, which is divided into three separate chapters, expounds and critically examines Immanuel Kant's theory of aesthetic judgements about nature. The first of these chapters deals with Kant's account of aesthetic judgements about natural beauty; the second with his claims about the connections between love of natural beauty and morality (which are contrasted with Schiller's claim about love of naive nature); and the third examines his theory of aesthetic judgements about the sublime in nature, rejecting much of Kant's view and proposing an alternative account of the emotion of the sublime. The third essay argues against the assimilation of the aesthetics of nature to that of art, explores the question of what determines the aesthetic properties of a natural item, and attempts to show that the doctrine of positive aesthetics with respect to nature, which maintains that nature unaffected by humanity is such as to make negative aesthetic judgements about the products of the natural world misplaced, is in certain versions false, in others inherently problematic. The fourth essay is a critical survey of much of the most significant recent literature on the aesthetics of nature. Various models of the aesthetic appreciation of nature have been advanced, but none of these is acceptable and, it is argued, no model is needed.
Kenneth Dyson and Kevin Featherstone
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198296386
- eISBN:
- 9780191599125
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019829638X.003.0008
- Subject:
- Political Science, European Union
EMU is situated in the context of the legacies of Schiller (especially coronation theory) and of Schmidt (the creation of the EMS). Schmidt's leadership style is examined with reference to the ...
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EMU is situated in the context of the legacies of Schiller (especially coronation theory) and of Schmidt (the creation of the EMS). Schmidt's leadership style is examined with reference to the Bundesbank, especially Emminger and the ordo‐liberals. The failure to launch the second stage of the EMS in 1982 is also considered.Less
EMU is situated in the context of the legacies of Schiller (especially coronation theory) and of Schmidt (the creation of the EMS). Schmidt's leadership style is examined with reference to the Bundesbank, especially Emminger and the ordo‐liberals. The failure to launch the second stage of the EMS in 1982 is also considered.
Wm. A. Little
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195394382
- eISBN:
- 9780199863556
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195394382.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western, Performing Practice/Studies
Although Mendelssohn was most famous during his lifetime as a composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor, he also enjoyed an enviable reputation as a highly skilled organist. The instrument had ...
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Although Mendelssohn was most famous during his lifetime as a composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor, he also enjoyed an enviable reputation as a highly skilled organist. The instrument had fascinated — one might almost say mesmerized — him from earliest youth, but aside from a year or so of formal training at the age of about 12 or 13, he was entirely self-taught. He never held a position as church organist, and never had any organ pupils. Nevertheless, the instrument played a uniquely important role in his personal life. In the course of his many travels, whether in major cities or tiny villages, he invariably gravitated to the organ loft, where he might spend hours playing the works of Bach or simply improvising. Although the piano clearly served Mendelssohn as an eminently practical instrument, the organ seems to have been his instrument of choice. He searched out an organ loft, not because he had to, but because he wanted to, because on the organ he could find catharsis. Indeed, as he once exclaimed to his parents after reading a portion of Schiller's Wilhelm Tell, “I must rush off to the monastery and work off my excitement on the organ!” Mendelssohn's public performance on the organ in Germany was rare, and he gave but one public recital: in the Thomas-Kirche in Leipzig in 1840. In England, however, he evidently felt more comfortable on the organ bench and played there often before large crowds. Indeed, he performed as Guest Organist twice at the Birmingham Music Festivals in 1837 and 1842. Given Mendelssohn's profound affinity for the organ, it is remarkable that he composed but relatively little for the instrument, and assigned an Opus number to only two works: his Three Preludes and Fugues for Organ (Op. 37) and his Six Sonatas for the Organ (Op. 65). A small number of organ works, plus sketches and drafts, were scattered among his musical papers; most of these only gradually found their way into print, and it was not until the late 20th century that an edition of his complete organ works was finally published. This volume is intended as a companion to that edition.Less
Although Mendelssohn was most famous during his lifetime as a composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor, he also enjoyed an enviable reputation as a highly skilled organist. The instrument had fascinated — one might almost say mesmerized — him from earliest youth, but aside from a year or so of formal training at the age of about 12 or 13, he was entirely self-taught. He never held a position as church organist, and never had any organ pupils. Nevertheless, the instrument played a uniquely important role in his personal life. In the course of his many travels, whether in major cities or tiny villages, he invariably gravitated to the organ loft, where he might spend hours playing the works of Bach or simply improvising. Although the piano clearly served Mendelssohn as an eminently practical instrument, the organ seems to have been his instrument of choice. He searched out an organ loft, not because he had to, but because he wanted to, because on the organ he could find catharsis. Indeed, as he once exclaimed to his parents after reading a portion of Schiller's Wilhelm Tell, “I must rush off to the monastery and work off my excitement on the organ!” Mendelssohn's public performance on the organ in Germany was rare, and he gave but one public recital: in the Thomas-Kirche in Leipzig in 1840. In England, however, he evidently felt more comfortable on the organ bench and played there often before large crowds. Indeed, he performed as Guest Organist twice at the Birmingham Music Festivals in 1837 and 1842. Given Mendelssohn's profound affinity for the organ, it is remarkable that he composed but relatively little for the instrument, and assigned an Opus number to only two works: his Three Preludes and Fugues for Organ (Op. 37) and his Six Sonatas for the Organ (Op. 65). A small number of organ works, plus sketches and drafts, were scattered among his musical papers; most of these only gradually found their way into print, and it was not until the late 20th century that an edition of his complete organ works was finally published. This volume is intended as a companion to that edition.
David Lloyd
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780823282388
- eISBN:
- 9780823284948
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823282388.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
Under Representation argues that the relation between the concepts of universality, freedom and humanity, and the racial order of the modern world is grounded in the founding texts of aesthetic ...
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Under Representation argues that the relation between the concepts of universality, freedom and humanity, and the racial order of the modern world is grounded in the founding texts of aesthetic philosophy. It challenges the absence of sustained thought about race in postcolonial studies and the lack of attention to aesthetics in critical race theory. Late Enlightenment discourse on aesthetic experience proposes a decisive account of the conditions of possibility for universal human subjecthood. The aesthetic forges a powerful racial regime of representation whose genealogy runs from enlightenment thinkers like Kant and Schiller to late modernist critics like Adorno and Benjamin. For aesthetic philosophy, representation is an activity that articulates the various spheres of human practice and theory, from the most fundamental acts of perception and reflection to the relation of the subject to the political, the economic, and the social. Representation regulates the distribution of racial identifications along a developmental trajectory: the racialized remain “under representation,” on the threshold of humanity and not yet capable of freedom and civility as aesthetic thought defines those attributes. To ignore the aesthetic is thus to overlook its continuing force in the formation of the racial and political structures down to the present. In its five chapters, Under Representation investigates the aesthetic foundations of modern political subjectivity; race and the sublime; the logic of assimilation and the sterotype; the subaltern critique of representation; and the place of magic and the primitive in modernist concepts of art, aura, and representation.Less
Under Representation argues that the relation between the concepts of universality, freedom and humanity, and the racial order of the modern world is grounded in the founding texts of aesthetic philosophy. It challenges the absence of sustained thought about race in postcolonial studies and the lack of attention to aesthetics in critical race theory. Late Enlightenment discourse on aesthetic experience proposes a decisive account of the conditions of possibility for universal human subjecthood. The aesthetic forges a powerful racial regime of representation whose genealogy runs from enlightenment thinkers like Kant and Schiller to late modernist critics like Adorno and Benjamin. For aesthetic philosophy, representation is an activity that articulates the various spheres of human practice and theory, from the most fundamental acts of perception and reflection to the relation of the subject to the political, the economic, and the social. Representation regulates the distribution of racial identifications along a developmental trajectory: the racialized remain “under representation,” on the threshold of humanity and not yet capable of freedom and civility as aesthetic thought defines those attributes. To ignore the aesthetic is thus to overlook its continuing force in the formation of the racial and political structures down to the present. In its five chapters, Under Representation investigates the aesthetic foundations of modern political subjectivity; race and the sublime; the logic of assimilation and the sterotype; the subaltern critique of representation; and the place of magic and the primitive in modernist concepts of art, aura, and representation.
Charles Martindale
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199240401
- eISBN:
- 9780191714337
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199240401.003.0004
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter counters another commonly made objection to aesthetic judgements about artworks (including works of literature): that they are really occluded judgements of other kinds. It considers ...
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This chapter counters another commonly made objection to aesthetic judgements about artworks (including works of literature): that they are really occluded judgements of other kinds. It considers politics and aesthetics as rival discourses, and the kind of interpretations that each generates by analyzing Horace Odes 2.7 and Virgil’s Eclogues. It argues for the legitimacy of aesthetic readings as well as political ones, and shows how the notion that the aesthetic is essentially a ‘reactionary’ category is quite at odds with the history of aesthetics. The specially privileged importance assigned to the aesthetic by Schiller (as a propaedeutic to good citizenship) and Pater (as a superior form of knowledge to any other), and the problems of their accounts are analysed. It is argued that a crucial feature of the aesthetic is the absence of hierarchy. The language and concepts of ideology critique are used to demonstrate the shortcomings of the chapter’s attack on the aesthetic.Less
This chapter counters another commonly made objection to aesthetic judgements about artworks (including works of literature): that they are really occluded judgements of other kinds. It considers politics and aesthetics as rival discourses, and the kind of interpretations that each generates by analyzing Horace Odes 2.7 and Virgil’s Eclogues. It argues for the legitimacy of aesthetic readings as well as political ones, and shows how the notion that the aesthetic is essentially a ‘reactionary’ category is quite at odds with the history of aesthetics. The specially privileged importance assigned to the aesthetic by Schiller (as a propaedeutic to good citizenship) and Pater (as a superior form of knowledge to any other), and the problems of their accounts are analysed. It is argued that a crucial feature of the aesthetic is the absence of hierarchy. The language and concepts of ideology critique are used to demonstrate the shortcomings of the chapter’s attack on the aesthetic.
Paul Fleming
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804758901
- eISBN:
- 9780804769983
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804758901.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
Following Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's analysis of art's increasing difficulty to both engage and extricate itself from prosaic reality, this book investigates the strategies employed by German ...
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Following Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's analysis of art's increasing difficulty to both engage and extricate itself from prosaic reality, this book investigates the strategies employed by German literature from 1750 to 1850 for increasingly attuning itself to quotidian life—common heroes, everyday life, non-extraordinary events—while also avoiding all notions of mediocrity. It focuses on three sites of this tension: the average audience (Gotthold Ephraim Lessing), the average artist (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller), and the everyday, or average life (Franz Grillparzer and Adalbert Stifter). The book's title, Exemplarity and Mediocrity, describes both a disjunctive and a conjunctive relation. Read disjunctively, modern art must display the “exemplary originality” (Immanuel Kant) which only genius can provide and is thus fundamentally opposed to mediocrity as that which does not stand out or lacks distinctiveness; in the conjunctive sense, modern art turns to non-exceptional life in order to transform it—without forsaking its commonness—thereby producing exemplary forms of mediocrity that both represent the non-exceptional and, insofar as they stand outside the group they represent, are something other than mediocre.Less
Following Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's analysis of art's increasing difficulty to both engage and extricate itself from prosaic reality, this book investigates the strategies employed by German literature from 1750 to 1850 for increasingly attuning itself to quotidian life—common heroes, everyday life, non-extraordinary events—while also avoiding all notions of mediocrity. It focuses on three sites of this tension: the average audience (Gotthold Ephraim Lessing), the average artist (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller), and the everyday, or average life (Franz Grillparzer and Adalbert Stifter). The book's title, Exemplarity and Mediocrity, describes both a disjunctive and a conjunctive relation. Read disjunctively, modern art must display the “exemplary originality” (Immanuel Kant) which only genius can provide and is thus fundamentally opposed to mediocrity as that which does not stand out or lacks distinctiveness; in the conjunctive sense, modern art turns to non-exceptional life in order to transform it—without forsaking its commonness—thereby producing exemplary forms of mediocrity that both represent the non-exceptional and, insofar as they stand outside the group they represent, are something other than mediocre.
Joshua Billings
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691159232
- eISBN:
- 9781400852505
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691159232.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Why did Greek tragedy and “the tragic” come to be seen as essential to conceptions of modernity? And how has this belief affected modern understandings of Greek drama? This book answers these and ...
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Why did Greek tragedy and “the tragic” come to be seen as essential to conceptions of modernity? And how has this belief affected modern understandings of Greek drama? This book answers these and related questions by tracing the emergence of the modern theory of the tragic, which was first developed around 1800 by thinkers associated with German Idealism. The book argues that the idea of the tragic arose in response to a new consciousness of history in the late eighteenth century, which spurred theorists to see Greek tragedy as both a unique, historically remote form and a timeless literary genre full of meaning for the present. The book offers a new interpretation of the theories of Schiller, Schelling, Hegel, Hölderlin, and others, as mediations between these historicizing and universalizing impulses, and shows the roots of their approaches in earlier discussions of Greek tragedy in Germany, France, and England. By examining eighteenth-century readings of tragedy and the interactions between idealist thinkers in detail, the book offers the most comprehensive historical account of the tragic to date, as well as the fullest explanation of why and how the idea was used to make sense of modernity. It argues that idealist theories remain fundamental to contemporary interpretations of Greek tragedy, and calls for a renewed engagement with philosophical questions in criticism of tragedy.Less
Why did Greek tragedy and “the tragic” come to be seen as essential to conceptions of modernity? And how has this belief affected modern understandings of Greek drama? This book answers these and related questions by tracing the emergence of the modern theory of the tragic, which was first developed around 1800 by thinkers associated with German Idealism. The book argues that the idea of the tragic arose in response to a new consciousness of history in the late eighteenth century, which spurred theorists to see Greek tragedy as both a unique, historically remote form and a timeless literary genre full of meaning for the present. The book offers a new interpretation of the theories of Schiller, Schelling, Hegel, Hölderlin, and others, as mediations between these historicizing and universalizing impulses, and shows the roots of their approaches in earlier discussions of Greek tragedy in Germany, France, and England. By examining eighteenth-century readings of tragedy and the interactions between idealist thinkers in detail, the book offers the most comprehensive historical account of the tragic to date, as well as the fullest explanation of why and how the idea was used to make sense of modernity. It argues that idealist theories remain fundamental to contemporary interpretations of Greek tragedy, and calls for a renewed engagement with philosophical questions in criticism of tragedy.
Katerina Deligiorgi
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199646159
- eISBN:
- 9780191741142
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199646159.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Chapter 1 is introductory; it aims to locate the central concepts, ideas, and questions that arise in the context of current debates about autonomy. This chapter provides the basic Kantian ...
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Chapter 1 is introductory; it aims to locate the central concepts, ideas, and questions that arise in the context of current debates about autonomy. This chapter provides the basic Kantian orientation for the theory of autonomy presented in the main body of the book and a preliminary characterization of autonomy in terms of ‘the idea of the will of every rational being as a universally legislating will’ (Groundwork 4:431). The chapter outlines the epistemic, psychological, metaphysical, and substantive normative commitments that make up this composite picture of autonomy and shows how the notion of nomos or ‘law’ within autonomy offers the best clue to understanding the full range of this complex concept.Less
Chapter 1 is introductory; it aims to locate the central concepts, ideas, and questions that arise in the context of current debates about autonomy. This chapter provides the basic Kantian orientation for the theory of autonomy presented in the main body of the book and a preliminary characterization of autonomy in terms of ‘the idea of the will of every rational being as a universally legislating will’ (Groundwork 4:431). The chapter outlines the epistemic, psychological, metaphysical, and substantive normative commitments that make up this composite picture of autonomy and shows how the notion of nomos or ‘law’ within autonomy offers the best clue to understanding the full range of this complex concept.
Katerina Deligiorgi
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199646159
- eISBN:
- 9780191741142
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199646159.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Chapter 5 returns to some of the issues about motivation discussed in earlier chapters by looking at Schiller’s arguments about the role of emotions in ethics. Re-establishing a link with the ...
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Chapter 5 returns to some of the issues about motivation discussed in earlier chapters by looking at Schiller’s arguments about the role of emotions in ethics. Re-establishing a link with the historical reception of Kant’s ideas is philosophically valuable for a number of reasons: first Schiller’s criticisms of Kant are interesting and subtle and therefore worth considering in some detail; second, this discussion contributes to considerations of ‘scope’ that are directly germane to the defence of autonomy presented here, by bringing to the foreground two divergent conceptions of ethics, one that is intersubjective and one that is self-perfecting; finally, it offers the opportunity to address from within a historical debate certain contemporary concerns about the role of emotions in ethics. It is argued that emotions can be accommodated within an ethic of autonomy, provided they complement the cognitive and motivational components that make up the theory of autonomy defended here.Less
Chapter 5 returns to some of the issues about motivation discussed in earlier chapters by looking at Schiller’s arguments about the role of emotions in ethics. Re-establishing a link with the historical reception of Kant’s ideas is philosophically valuable for a number of reasons: first Schiller’s criticisms of Kant are interesting and subtle and therefore worth considering in some detail; second, this discussion contributes to considerations of ‘scope’ that are directly germane to the defence of autonomy presented here, by bringing to the foreground two divergent conceptions of ethics, one that is intersubjective and one that is self-perfecting; finally, it offers the opportunity to address from within a historical debate certain contemporary concerns about the role of emotions in ethics. It is argued that emotions can be accommodated within an ethic of autonomy, provided they complement the cognitive and motivational components that make up the theory of autonomy defended here.
Nicholas Martin
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198159131
- eISBN:
- 9780191673511
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198159131.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This introductory chapter begins by explaining the rationale behind the author's comparison of Nietzsche's and Schiller's aesthetics. It then sets out the two main arguments of the study. The first ...
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This introductory chapter begins by explaining the rationale behind the author's comparison of Nietzsche's and Schiller's aesthetics. It then sets out the two main arguments of the study. The first is that Nietzsche's early writings owe more to Schiller than either Nietzsche or any commentator since has wished to admit. The second is that there are tangible parallels between the form and content of Die Geburt ter Tragödie and Ästhetische Briefe. In other words, it is argued that there are hitherto overlooked connections between the thought of the two writers, who are usually regarded as chalk and cheese. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.Less
This introductory chapter begins by explaining the rationale behind the author's comparison of Nietzsche's and Schiller's aesthetics. It then sets out the two main arguments of the study. The first is that Nietzsche's early writings owe more to Schiller than either Nietzsche or any commentator since has wished to admit. The second is that there are tangible parallels between the form and content of Die Geburt ter Tragödie and Ästhetische Briefe. In other words, it is argued that there are hitherto overlooked connections between the thought of the two writers, who are usually regarded as chalk and cheese. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.
Nicholas Martin
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198159131
- eISBN:
- 9780191673511
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198159131.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This chapter establishes the nature and development of Nietzsche's Schillerbild, both before and during the period in which he wrote Die Geburt der Tragödie. It begins by tracing the oscillations of ...
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This chapter establishes the nature and development of Nietzsche's Schillerbild, both before and during the period in which he wrote Die Geburt der Tragödie. It begins by tracing the oscillations of Nietzsche's attitude to Schiller, in order to correct the impression that it was uniformly hostile. It then shows that the early Nietzsche established his own, positive image of Schiller in deliberate opposition to what he saw as the false, pernicious, and complacent image of ‘unser Schiller’ held by many of his contemporaries.Less
This chapter establishes the nature and development of Nietzsche's Schillerbild, both before and during the period in which he wrote Die Geburt der Tragödie. It begins by tracing the oscillations of Nietzsche's attitude to Schiller, in order to correct the impression that it was uniformly hostile. It then shows that the early Nietzsche established his own, positive image of Schiller in deliberate opposition to what he saw as the false, pernicious, and complacent image of ‘unser Schiller’ held by many of his contemporaries.
Nicholas Martin
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198159131
- eISBN:
- 9780191673511
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198159131.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
The success of the untimely aesthetic reform programmes outlined in the Ä Briefe and Die Geburt ter Trag Tragödie depends on three interconnected factors: the historical conceptions which underlie ...
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The success of the untimely aesthetic reform programmes outlined in the Ä Briefe and Die Geburt ter Trag Tragödie depends on three interconnected factors: the historical conceptions which underlie the texts, the nature of the aesthetic models they invoke, and the validity of the metaphysical and psychological claims which underpin their aesthetic theories. This chapter addresses the first of these, namely, the conceptions of historical development on which the arguments of the two texts are founded.Less
The success of the untimely aesthetic reform programmes outlined in the Ä Briefe and Die Geburt ter Trag Tragödie depends on three interconnected factors: the historical conceptions which underlie the texts, the nature of the aesthetic models they invoke, and the validity of the metaphysical and psychological claims which underpin their aesthetic theories. This chapter addresses the first of these, namely, the conceptions of historical development on which the arguments of the two texts are founded.
Nicholas Martin
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198159131
- eISBN:
- 9780191673511
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198159131.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
The detail of Schiller's and Nietzsche's respective interrogations and interpretations of the Greek past and its legacy is very different. Their underlying motives were, however, strikingly similar. ...
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The detail of Schiller's and Nietzsche's respective interrogations and interpretations of the Greek past and its legacy is very different. Their underlying motives were, however, strikingly similar. The aim of Ästhetische Briefe was twofold. First, it was to demonstrate that the aesthetic experience was the defining mode of human existence, the harmonizing, catalytic moment between the physical and the moral, where the individual begins the process of restoring his wholeness. Secondly, it was to put his theory to work as a means of tackling and conquering the human problems laid bare by the French Revolution. Nietzsche's purpose in Die Geburt ter Tragödie was to turn to world upside down, to return mankind (or at least Ger-mankind) to the healthy pessimistic worldview he detected in early ancient Greek culture, which was diametrically opposed to what he saw as the arrogant and utterly misplaced 19th-century desire not merely to explain human existence but also to change it for the better. This chapter seeks to answer why Nietzsche and Schiller should have looked to the ancient Greeks. What led them to think that the Greeks, or what they stood for, could have anything to do with the state of contemporary German culture? With reference principally to Die Geburt ter Tragödie and Ästhetische Briefe, the chapter attempts to define and compare Nietzsche's and Schiller's interpretations of the Greek past.Less
The detail of Schiller's and Nietzsche's respective interrogations and interpretations of the Greek past and its legacy is very different. Their underlying motives were, however, strikingly similar. The aim of Ästhetische Briefe was twofold. First, it was to demonstrate that the aesthetic experience was the defining mode of human existence, the harmonizing, catalytic moment between the physical and the moral, where the individual begins the process of restoring his wholeness. Secondly, it was to put his theory to work as a means of tackling and conquering the human problems laid bare by the French Revolution. Nietzsche's purpose in Die Geburt ter Tragödie was to turn to world upside down, to return mankind (or at least Ger-mankind) to the healthy pessimistic worldview he detected in early ancient Greek culture, which was diametrically opposed to what he saw as the arrogant and utterly misplaced 19th-century desire not merely to explain human existence but also to change it for the better. This chapter seeks to answer why Nietzsche and Schiller should have looked to the ancient Greeks. What led them to think that the Greeks, or what they stood for, could have anything to do with the state of contemporary German culture? With reference principally to Die Geburt ter Tragödie and Ästhetische Briefe, the chapter attempts to define and compare Nietzsche's and Schiller's interpretations of the Greek past.
Nicholas Martin
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198159131
- eISBN:
- 9780191673511
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198159131.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This chapter has two main goals. The first is to show that Nietzsche and Schiller share common aesthetic ground. The second is to demonstrate that the similarity of the problems they encounter can be ...
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This chapter has two main goals. The first is to show that Nietzsche and Schiller share common aesthetic ground. The second is to demonstrate that the similarity of the problems they encounter can be traced to the metaphysical and psychological assumptions which underpin their respective conceptions of the aesthetic process. Each writer works with a very specific conception of man's metaphysical and psychological make-up, and while these conceptions are by no means identical, they shape the two accounts of the aesthetic process and its regenerative potential as well as giving rise to remarkably similar problems.Less
This chapter has two main goals. The first is to show that Nietzsche and Schiller share common aesthetic ground. The second is to demonstrate that the similarity of the problems they encounter can be traced to the metaphysical and psychological assumptions which underpin their respective conceptions of the aesthetic process. Each writer works with a very specific conception of man's metaphysical and psychological make-up, and while these conceptions are by no means identical, they shape the two accounts of the aesthetic process and its regenerative potential as well as giving rise to remarkably similar problems.
Nicholas Martin
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198159131
- eISBN:
- 9780191673511
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198159131.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This chapter argues that despite their talk of restoring the whole man, there is little evidence that either Nietzsche or Schiller has clearly envisaged the social and political framework in which ...
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This chapter argues that despite their talk of restoring the whole man, there is little evidence that either Nietzsche or Schiller has clearly envisaged the social and political framework in which the creative activity necessary to restore and sustain man's wholeness could flourish. Their reluctance in this regard is linked to the point made in Chapter 5 concerning their anti-didactic views of art. They argue that it is not the artist's business to indulge in social engineering. Nevertheless, aesthetic theories, especially those on the grand scale like Nietzsche's and Schiller's, neglect social and political realities at their peril.Less
This chapter argues that despite their talk of restoring the whole man, there is little evidence that either Nietzsche or Schiller has clearly envisaged the social and political framework in which the creative activity necessary to restore and sustain man's wholeness could flourish. Their reluctance in this regard is linked to the point made in Chapter 5 concerning their anti-didactic views of art. They argue that it is not the artist's business to indulge in social engineering. Nevertheless, aesthetic theories, especially those on the grand scale like Nietzsche's and Schiller's, neglect social and political realities at their peril.
Matthew Bell
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198158943
- eISBN:
- 9780191673429
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198158943.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
According to a conventional view, Goethe's theory of art after 1788 consists in a renunciation of his earlier naturalism and a move towards a conception of the norms of classical art. It is often ...
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According to a conventional view, Goethe's theory of art after 1788 consists in a renunciation of his earlier naturalism and a move towards a conception of the norms of classical art. It is often assumed that because Goethe attacked naturalism in aesthetics, he must have taken up an idealist or quasi-idealist position; this would amount to a move towards Kant and Schiller. This chapter argues that the developments in Goethe's aesthetics in the 1790s are best understood not as a complete renunciation of naturalism, but as a series of refinements to an essentially naturalistic position — a move from a ‘crude’ to a ‘deep’ naturalism.Less
According to a conventional view, Goethe's theory of art after 1788 consists in a renunciation of his earlier naturalism and a move towards a conception of the norms of classical art. It is often assumed that because Goethe attacked naturalism in aesthetics, he must have taken up an idealist or quasi-idealist position; this would amount to a move towards Kant and Schiller. This chapter argues that the developments in Goethe's aesthetics in the 1790s are best understood not as a complete renunciation of naturalism, but as a series of refinements to an essentially naturalistic position — a move from a ‘crude’ to a ‘deep’ naturalism.
Marilyn Butler
- Published in print:
- 1988
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198129684
- eISBN:
- 9780191671838
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198129684.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
The leading spirits behind The Anti-Jacobin of 1797–1798 were George Canning, William Gifford, and Hookham Frere, intelligent men who liked at least to claim that their targets were ideas rather than ...
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The leading spirits behind The Anti-Jacobin of 1797–1798 were George Canning, William Gifford, and Hookham Frere, intelligent men who liked at least to claim that their targets were ideas rather than personalities. When they did single out individuals for attack, these were as a rule offenders by conservative lights: among creative writers, Robert Southey and, less prominently, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Charles Lamb, and Charles Lloyd; the didactic poets Richard Payne Knight and Erasmus Darwin; and the German dramatists Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, and August von Kotzebue. Since modern readers do not look at these writers primarily in terms of their ideology, we are inclined to consider perverse the repeated attacks on them (and, later, on William Wordsworth) by conservative critics. However, an examination of The Anti-Jacobins's charges shows that, whatever else the magazine may have been, it was at least consistent in applying its own principles.Less
The leading spirits behind The Anti-Jacobin of 1797–1798 were George Canning, William Gifford, and Hookham Frere, intelligent men who liked at least to claim that their targets were ideas rather than personalities. When they did single out individuals for attack, these were as a rule offenders by conservative lights: among creative writers, Robert Southey and, less prominently, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Charles Lamb, and Charles Lloyd; the didactic poets Richard Payne Knight and Erasmus Darwin; and the German dramatists Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, and August von Kotzebue. Since modern readers do not look at these writers primarily in terms of their ideology, we are inclined to consider perverse the repeated attacks on them (and, later, on William Wordsworth) by conservative critics. However, an examination of The Anti-Jacobins's charges shows that, whatever else the magazine may have been, it was at least consistent in applying its own principles.
David Constantine
- Published in print:
- 1988
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198157885
- eISBN:
- 9780191673238
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198157885.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, Poetry
For a better understanding of Friedrich Hölderlin's elegies it will be enough to mention two or three elements in the development of the genre in German. One is the naturalization of the couplet ...
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For a better understanding of Friedrich Hölderlin's elegies it will be enough to mention two or three elements in the development of the genre in German. One is the naturalization of the couplet itself; others are the analysis, by poets and critics, of the elegiac mood, and the discussion of the genre's possible implications in modern times. In the Baroque period the most generally accepted approximation to the elegiac couplet consisted of alternating masculine and feminine alexandrines; but, less strictly, almost any pairs of lines of differing length, rhyming or not, would do. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's ‘Römische Elegien’ and Friedrich Schiller's ‘Spaziergang’, poles apart in subject and mood, both demonstrated mastery of the form itself; and on that basis of what the German language could do with the classical distich, Hölderlin began.Less
For a better understanding of Friedrich Hölderlin's elegies it will be enough to mention two or three elements in the development of the genre in German. One is the naturalization of the couplet itself; others are the analysis, by poets and critics, of the elegiac mood, and the discussion of the genre's possible implications in modern times. In the Baroque period the most generally accepted approximation to the elegiac couplet consisted of alternating masculine and feminine alexandrines; but, less strictly, almost any pairs of lines of differing length, rhyming or not, would do. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's ‘Römische Elegien’ and Friedrich Schiller's ‘Spaziergang’, poles apart in subject and mood, both demonstrated mastery of the form itself; and on that basis of what the German language could do with the classical distich, Hölderlin began.
Henry E. Allison
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199691531
- eISBN:
- 9780191731808
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199691531.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This chapter is concerned with two topics. The first is Kant conception of maxims, which are the subjective principles on which finite rational agents act. It claims that maxims are freely adopted by ...
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This chapter is concerned with two topics. The first is Kant conception of maxims, which are the subjective principles on which finite rational agents act. It claims that maxims are freely adopted by an agent; and consist in general rules to act in a certain way in given situations in order to attain a chosen end. It further argues that for the attribution of a maxim to an agent it suffices that it can be judged to have been implicit in the actions of that agent, even if the agent did not make a consciousness commitment to adopt it. The second topic is Kant’s claim that an action has moral worth only if it is performed from duty alone. It defends this claim against Schiller’s objection that in order for an action to have moral worth the agent must not have any other reason to perform it.Less
This chapter is concerned with two topics. The first is Kant conception of maxims, which are the subjective principles on which finite rational agents act. It claims that maxims are freely adopted by an agent; and consist in general rules to act in a certain way in given situations in order to attain a chosen end. It further argues that for the attribution of a maxim to an agent it suffices that it can be judged to have been implicit in the actions of that agent, even if the agent did not make a consciousness commitment to adopt it. The second topic is Kant’s claim that an action has moral worth only if it is performed from duty alone. It defends this claim against Schiller’s objection that in order for an action to have moral worth the agent must not have any other reason to perform it.
