Ideas for a Social Aesthetics

Starting from a suggestion in Schiller's "On the Aesthetic Education of Man," this essay develops the rationale of an aesthetic basis for social philosophy or, what we may call a social aesthetics. Social implications can be found in the arts when we consider them from a traditional perspective. However, Schiller's insight about social harmony gains in force and specificity from a more inclusive, contextual approach. Taking aesthetic appreciation as a model for the social situation, this essay explores the social implications of aesthetic appreciation in different situations: in relations with children, in love, and in a political order that is non-hierarchical and that gives new meaning to tolerance, reciprocity, and equality–the goal of a truly humane community.