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Philosophy Modern

Dialectic of Love

Platonism in Schiller's Aesthetics

by (author) David Pugh

Publisher
McGill-Queen's University Press
Initial publish date
Mar 1997
Category
Modern, German
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780773564145
    Publish Date
    Mar 1997
    List Price
    $110.00

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Description

Dialectic of Love analyses the arguments of Schiller's major writings on aesthetics and argues that his philosophical thought, theories, and concepts are characteristic of the Platonic tradition. Schiller's conception of beauty is seen as synthesis, the sublime as separation. Pugh connects these concepts to Aristotle's critique of Plato's theory of ideas, in which Aristotle points out an aporia of chorismos (separation) and methexis (participation). In Schiller's thought, Pugh argues, beauty and the sublime operate primarily as metaphysical relations of methexis and chorismos and only secondarily as aesthetic concepts. While Schiller, Pugh reveals, is not very well suited for the role of champion of the Enlightenment, he remains a crucial figure in the transmission of the Platonic tradition to modern idealism and in the application of the Platonic metaphysical heritage to nineteenth-century aesthetics.

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