This chapter explains Schiller’s early attempt to develop an objective standard of criticism in the Kallias Briefe. Against many critics, it argues that this ambition was not misguided at all, but tries to surmount a serious weakness of Kant’s aesthetics. It explains the meaning of Schiller’s famous definition of beauty as freedom in appearance. Metaphysical interpretations of this definition are rejected.
Keywords: taste, standard, aesthetic judgement, beauty, autonomy, heautonomy, freedom in appearance, objectivity, Kant