Aesthetic Ideas in Schiller's Aesthetic Letters:A Theory of Aesthetic Education

In Aesthetic Letters,his most important aesthetic thesis,Schiller expounded his ideas on aesthetic education which,in his opinion,ought to be a comprehensive education aiming to reform and remold humanity through the beauty of arts. It enables man to enter an aesthetic readiness or mentality,form a free determination and thereby become a person of all-round development. In fact,it makes it possible for him to pass from the physical world of necessity to the aesthetic and ethical world of freedom. In aesthetic education,beauty and art assume the role of second creator of man and mold him, through aesthetic contemplation and aesthetic games,into a human being with a sound personality. In the world of today the aesthetic qualities of robustness(sublimity) and resilience(grace) that make up for different deficiencies of the personality can help people combat the sense of alienation brought on by the modern civilization and approach the ideal of a fully developed personality.