Letters Upon The Aesthetic Education Of Man

Good day to Dr Tan Wee Hoe, my aesthetic lecturer. I'm looking forward to be teach by you Dr Tan. My name is NAZIRUL IZZUAN BIN ZUL AKMAR, D20111050109 was been asked to do a research or so call analysis about a book and give my opinion and also a bit of what I understand about the letters in that book.

I was asked to make a critique about a book title "Letters Upon The Aesthetics Education Of Man" by J. C. Friedrich Von Schiller. I will begin by telling a bit about the author J. C. Friedrich Von Schiller. He did notable work in history and philosophy, and in the department of esthetics especially, he made significant contributions, modifying and developing in importance respects in Kant and on this book, he gave the philosophic basis and indicates clearly and persuasively his view of the place of beauty in human life.

I will do some analysis and will try to point out some arguments and critique in all the letter and do some elaboration or explain my understanding about what he was trying to say. I will also give some opinion on the critique so that it backs the critique that I made.

THE FIRST LETTER

In the 1st letter, the author, Friedrich Schiller, has been given the authority to do a research about beauty by a certain person.

"Little exercised in formal rules, I shall scarcely incur the risk of sinning against good taste by any undue use of them; my ideas, drawn rather from within than from reading or from an intimate experience with the world, will not disown their origin; they would rather incur any reproach than that of a sectarian bias, and would prefer to succumb by their innate feebleness than sustain themselves by borrowed authority and foreign support."

I think that Schiller was researching about what can be define as "beauty". He does a research based on what the society think is beauty or not. He does it by incur any reproach or bias towards what other thinks as beauty. Schiller also tries to prove that beauty isn't supposed to be nice or something like that but is determine by the usefulness of that object and also he wants to prove that the society was a hypocrite to think that way. What makes you happy defines as beauty for some but sometimes it can be the other way around. For me,it will be differ from others perspective based on their moral experiences of describing beauty.

THE SECOND LETTER

Now we move to the 2nd letter of this book. One of the sentences in that letter is like this.

"For art has to leave reality, it has to raise itself bodily above necessity and neediness; for art is the daughter of freedom, and it requires its prescriptions and rules to be furnished by the necessity of spirits and not by that of matter."

Schiller tries to make a correlation with art. For him, it just like art because in art,we need to think more creatively and freedom on thinking. Art is not based on the fact that beauty is beauty but it can be mean a whole lot more and different that it. For example, the picture below.

PABLO PICASSO - Femme en Pleurs,1937.

The picture above is a Pablo Picasso's art in 1937 entitled "Femme en Pleurs". By that picture, there are people that recognized this painting as beauty and worth a lot of money. It differs from the other thoughts because they can define this painting by experiences. For a none art lover, they will think this picture is hideous. Schiller also tries to explain free from the political legislation and tries to place himself in the center of someone's shoe to make a judgement on what is beauty or not depends on the individuals. So I can understand why Schiller tries to define beauty by individuals because he doesn't want to be bias and true to himself.

Myself also agrees with Schiller that art has to leave reality because if we don't do that,we never will make or produce something creative. We need to use our imagination to some extend so that we can produce something that can be call an art. Schiller also tries to convince the receiver of this letter that freedom is another way of thinking something beauty.

THE THIRD LETTER

The third letter that I read is that Schiller tries to implement nature to his thoughts or idea on defining beauty.

"Man is not better treated by nature in his first start than her other works are; so long as he is unable to act for himself as an independent intelligence, she acts for him."

I think that in this statement, Schiller tries to explain that we should be independent and accepts any challenges that is brought in front of us so that we can make our own solution on how to face it and implement good moral values as well. I think for me the meaning of the word "nature" that is being used is that Schiller is describing that word as our own natural habit or in other word instinct.

The more older we get,the more experiences we will received depends on our own attitude of handling things. If we do good, good karma will come to us. I agree with Schiller said that to prevent physical society from ceasing for a moment in time, while the moral society is being formed in the idea; in other words, to prevent its
existence from being placed in jeopardy, for the sake of the moral dignity of man. I said that because moral value can shape a man's heart for goodness and also good for the society.

THE FOURTH LETTER

Let's move on to the fourth letter. On the fourth letter, I will state one of the issues inside of the fourth letter.

"When the mechanical artist places his hand on the formless block, to give it a form according to his intention, he has not any scruples in doing violence to it. For the nature on which he works does not deserve any respect in itself, and he does not value the whole for its parts, but the parts on account of the whole. When the child of the fine arts sets his hand to the same block, he has no scruples either in doing violence to it, he only avoids showing this violence. He does not respect the matter in which he works, and more than the mechanical artist; but he seeks by an apparent consideration for it to deceive the eye which takes this matter under its protection."

In that statement, I think that mechanical artist is a person that doesn't appreciates art or true meaning of beauty alas will never understand the true meaning of beauty. For fine artists,they will appreciate the same set of art or beauty that has been given to mechanical artists and improve or other word is used it wisely. It brings back to the point or issues that has been stated on the second letter that everybody has it's own definition of beauty.

THE FIFTH LETTER

In the fifth letter of this book, I will point out one of the issues contained in that letter and that is:

"Man paints himself in his actions, and what is the form depicted in the drama of the present time? On the one hand, he is seen running wild, on the other in a state of lethargy; the two extremest stages of human degeneracy, and both seen in one and the same period."

From my understanding on the above issue or statement, I can say that a man must be responsible on the actions that he has done. We should think carefully before we act or do something so that it doesn't have any bad consequences. It will kept the balance and beauty of the society that we lived in and also we shouldn't be arrogant or egoist on the things we do and kept being humble so that society doesn't think us a bad influence.


So that ends my post for all fifth letter and I hope that it'll bring something good or a good thought for the good of mankind. Beauty can be described in many ways depending on the level of thinking of a person and can't be thought as one description only.

Thank you for reading my blog and I hope I can get any kind of feedback to improve my learning experiences in life.