Freedom and Dignity: The Historical and Philosophical Thought of Schiller

156 Pages·1965·4.227 MB·English

by  Deric Regin (auth.)

FREEDOM AND DIGNITY
FREEDOM AND DIGNITY
THE HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL
THOUGHT OF SCHILLER
by
DERIC REGIN
THE HAG U E l M ART IN USN IJ H 0 F F J 1965
Copyright 1965 by Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1965
All rights reserved, including the right to transltlte or to
reproduce this book or parts thereof ill any form
ISBN 978-94-011-8395-6 ISBN 978-94-011-9097-8 (e8ook)
DOl 10.1007/978-94-011-9097-8
For N. F. R.
Wie verwahrl sich aber der Kunstler vor den Verderb
nissen seiner Zeit" die ihn von allen Seiten umfangen?
Jf/ enn er ihr Urteil verachtet. Br Micke aufwarts nach
seiner Wurde find dem Gesetz, nicht niederwarts nach
dem Gluck find nach dem Bedurfnis.
Schiller
PREFACE
I wish to express my gratitude to the following distinguished scholars
who have been greatly instrumental in the result of this inquiry.
I am most indebted to Professor Peter Gay of Columbia, who has
weeded out many errors and ambiguities in the manuscript, and whose
vast knowledge, wide interest and profound insights have helped me
here, as on previous occasions, to understand the intricacies of the
eighteenth century. I should also like to thank Professor Fritz Stern for
the keen criticism with which he has read the entire manuscript.
A special debt lowe to Dr. Walter Silz who, expert on Schiller as
well as on the Romantics, has aided me with great skill, experience and
wisdom in the problem of relating both. I further wish to thank Pro
fessor Walter Sokel of Stanford and Professor Theodore Ziolkowski of
Princeton for their assistance in specific problems.
Above all, however, I am profoundly indebted to my wife, without
whose infinite care and patience, as well as fine linguistic precision this
study could not have been written.
T ABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 1
PART 1. BETWEEN ARCADIA AND KARLSSCHULE
1. Rebels and scholars 5
2. The freedom to wander 16
3. Romantic polarity 27
PAR T II. BET WEE N J E N A AND V E R SAIL L E S
1. Professional history 45
2. The inaugural address 56
3. The historical writings 70
PAR T III. BET WEE N PAR THE NON AND BAS TILL E
1. Political and esthetic roots 87
2. The philosophical essays 109
3. The Esthetic Letters 118
CONCLUSION 147
INTRODUCTION
What is the value of any political freedom, but as a means
10 moral freedom? .. We are a nation of politicians, con
cerned about the olltmost defenses only of freedom.
Thore,tu
The renewed interest in Schiller's writings during recent years is proba
bly partly due to the fact that he is recognized as the "father" of the
concept of alienation, a notion which is becoming more and more
popular in works of philosophical, political and sociological theory.
This study does not deal with alienation. In examining the develop
ment of Schiller's historical and philosophical thought, it is basically
devoted to his ideas on freedom. The major period of this development
coincides exactly with the development of the French Revolution, which
was a struggle for political freedom. Schiller supported its original aims
and the provisions of the constitution of 1791, but since freedom to him
was of larger scope than the securing of political rights, his main con
cern was an absolute liberty encompassing political as well as moral
freedom. He viewed the separation of moral freedom from the political,
of character and dignity from political acts as the greatest weakness of
his age. This alienation of freedom lies at the basis of all other social
estrangement and constitutes the introduction to the historical develop
ment of alienation since Schiller.
Schiller's thought is founded on the typical idealist philosophy of his
time and naturally creates problems for our more pragmatic minds. It
is, however, not the purpose of this essay to submit the foundation of
this philosophy to scrutiny, but rather to take Schiller on his own terms,
and examine his theories within their own historical context. They were
rooted in the belief that in the mutual relationship of ideas and phe
nomena, the former determine the latter, and not vice versa. For Schiller
this does not imply the complete annihilation of the importance of phe
nomena, which Klages seems to fear when he observes that "the essence
of the historical process (also called progress) is the continuing, trium
phant struggle of spirit against life, with the logical result of the de-
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INTRODCCTION
struction of the latter." To Schiller form and matter, idea and phe
1
nomenon benefit from each other in a relationship of polarity. If there is
a paradox in this, it represents the paradox which Croce detected in life
itself: "Such is the law of the spirit: it creates life and it conquers the life
which it has created." Whether one interprets the word spirit as intel
2
lect, as God, or as the French esprit, the paradox remains. For man in
his dichotomous nature cannot but "think with his hands," his intellect
must manifest itself, "and the word manifest implies main."
3
Schiller's thought culminated in the concept of the Esthetic State,
founded on absolute freedom that would restore to man the dignity from
which he, according to Schiller, was alienated. If we cannot here elabo
rate on the alienation of our present age, it may suffice to quote the
words of a man who was an unequalled champion of modern civiliza
tion, and who saw better than anyone else the discrepancy between its
ideal potentiality and its final reality:
"Without response to his (Schiller's) call to construct better con
ceptions, purer principles, nobler morals, on which, after all, depend
any improvement of the social situation, a besotted and abandoned
generation topples towards its no longer unwelcome fall, amidst the
blaring of sensational records in technique and sport."
4
1 Ludwig Klages, Dey Geist als Jj7idersacher de,. Seele, Leipzig, 1929/32, I, 3,9.
Benedetto Croce, Frammenti di etica, Bari, 1922, III.
Denis de Rougemont, Pense,. at'ec les mazns, Paris, 1936, I, l.
• ';'homas Mann, Versuch uber Schiller, Berlin, 1955, p. 103.
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PAR T I
BETWEEN ARCADIA AND KARLSSCHULE
Das Wesen des Ichs ist die Freiheit.
Schelling
1. REBELS AND SCHOLARS
W liberte naturelle, qui n' a pour barnes que les forces de
I'individu.
Rousseau
Schiller was born in 1759 in one of those tame bourgeois families that
have so often cradled untamed genius. Growing up in a devout Pietist
milieu, it was not unnatural that Schiller should plan to prepare him
self for the ministry. However the Duke of Wiirttemberg needed young
intelligence for his growing school and forced Schiller's father, an of
ficer in Karl Eugen's service, to enroll the boy in this institute. Thus at
fourteen, young Johann Christoph Friedrich entered the Pflanzschule
at the palace Solitude.
The school had a queer curriculum, a combination of high school
subjects with special fields of a type which one would rather expect on
the university level. These fields did not include theology, and the
parents' dream of seeing their son's future in a parsonage was shattered.
The duke decided he must be a lawyer. What Schiller would have been
like as a rural clergyman is difficult to imagine; at least one can be sure
that the work would not have interfered with his lofty poetical aspira
tions. But the schematic discipline of "Jurisprudenz" into which he was
forced, lay far beyond his reach. He suffered.
School life at Solitude was organized completely along military
lines. Every move was made on command. On command the students
woke up, on command they dressed, went into the dining room, the class
room, the dormitory. And on command they prayed. 1 They were all
dressed the same way and wore special, ceremonial uniforms on drill
parades. A class-mate, Scharffenstein, has described how comical Schiller
looked on these occasions with his long neck, pale face and red-rimmed
eyes. He was one of the dirtiest boys of the institute - "J can still picture
him with his unwashed head full of curls and an enormous wig." 2
1 Karl Hoffmeister, Schillers Leben, 3rd ed. Stuttgart, 1858, p. 28.
2 Ibid., p. 29.
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