Vocabulary Flashcards from "Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man"

A collection of vocabulary flashcards based on key concepts from Friedrich Schiller's "Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man." Each card includes a term and its definition.

Friedrich Schiller

Author of "Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man."

Raphael

The individual to whom Julius writes in Letter I.

Melancholy

An emotion that dominates Julius's tone in Letter I.

Metaphor of autumn fog

Describes nature after Raphael's departure as 'a thick autumn fog hangs suspended like a bier over the lifeless fields.'

Peaceful thoughts

What Julius blames Raphael for robbing him of.

Ignorance

How Julius describes his state before meeting Raphael, likening it to 'a drunken man with bandaged eyes.'

Infinite Goodness

The concept Julius argues creation contradicts.

Reason

Julius's only warrant for God, virtue, and immortality.

Rhetorical question on heathenism

'Can the very feeling you found detestable in heathenism prove the truth of your doctrine?'

The art of the beautiful

Identified by Schiller as the instrument for ennobling character.

Immortal models of art

The sources of aesthetic education according to Schiller.

Independence of art and science

They are emancipated from human conventions and arbitrary will.

Character of an age

When it becomes stiff, science and art are restricted.

Relaxed character of an age

Leads to science aiming to please and art rejoicing.

Schiller's advice to artists

Avoid being a disciple of their time; draw inspiration from a nobler age.

Dignity in art

Art saves and preserves dignity in timeless forms.

Metaphor of truth and beauty

'Truth continues to live in illusion, and the copy will serve to reestablish the model.'

Nobility of art vs nature

Art's nobility survives and precedes nature's.

Focus for the artist

The artist should focus on their own dignity and not external necessity or fortune.

Creating the ideal

The artist should endeavor to unite the possible and the necessary.

Real vs ideal

The artist should abandon the real to understanding and focus on birthing the ideal.

Relationship with time

The artist should quietly launch their work into infinite time.

Ardent creative force

Can throw itself into active life striving for immediate transformation of the moral world.

Innovator's self-questioning

Whether moral disorders wound his reason or self-love.

End of a pure moral motive

The absolute; it transcends time.

Young friend of truth and beauty

Schiller advises to direct the world towards the good.

Raising thoughts

By teaching necessary and eternal concepts.

Structure of error

Must fall once one is sure it is tottering.

Cherishing truth

In the heart and giving it form through beauty.

Warning about external reality

Do not venture into it without assurance from ideal nature.

Living with one’s age

Be not its creation; serve contemporaries' needs.

Sharing punishment with age

Noble resignation towards the faults of contemporaries.

Disdain for age's fortune

Submitting to suffering, showing it is not out of cowardice.

Influencing others

By focusing on their taste rather than their heart.

Final goal of noble forms

To make appearance triumph over reality and art over nature.