This chapter examines the context and argument of Schiller’s most famous text. Schiller’s critics contend that the work is hopelessly divided into philosophical and historical halves. It is argued that the work is a coherent whole. An attempt is made to bring out the political context behind the work, especially its neglected affiliation with the republican tradition of Machiavelli, Montesquieu, Ferguson and Rousseau. Schiller’s hidden polemic against Fichte and Rousseau is also reconstructed.
Keywords: beauty, republican tradition, aesthetic eucation, crisis of enlightenment, French Revolution, transcendental deduction, aesthetic state, aesthetic condition