Schiller’s Letters articulate his utopian hope for society, in which beauty has elevated people’s morals. Two “instincts” (the sensuous) and the formal (reason) battle each other, only to be united in the “play” instinct. This “play” instinct sets man “free” morally and physically, because its object is beauty. Through beauty, man can achieve freedom.

Writing in the aftermath of the French Revolution and Reign of Terror, Schiller critiques the turn toward reason and rationality that the Enlightenment promises. He assumes that his readers endorse these beliefs, as well as traditional Enlightenment ideals about nature, innocence, and dualisms. Schiller also believes that there are ideals, both in society and beyond, toward which people should strive. He also believes that contingencies, or differences, cause problems. Though Schiller himself shares some of these ideas and reinforces them by arguing that only through unity, can we achieve freedom, he also argues against the rational turn in society. For Schiller, rationality is only one half of human existence; it needs balance and unification in order to prevent corruption. He wants his audience to recognize that the culture they have created is actually moving them farther away from freedom and unity.

I'm really interested in Schiller's understanding of time and timelessness. According to Schiller, beauty releases us from the clutches of rationality because it releases us from time. I'm not really sure how, exactly, this works. More importantly, how does time play a role in forming the beautiful and -- Schiller's ultimate goal -- freedom? What kind of freedom, then, is Schiller promoting?

In the 8th letter, Schiller writes, "there must be something in the spirit of man -- as it is not in the objects themselves -- which prevents us from receiving the truth." Does he then believe that man is ultimately at odds with nature and society? This would mean that art unites not only man's instincts, but his relationship with purest nature (and truth). Does the unification promote truth, then? What is the relationship between truth and beauty? Can one prevail to achieve Schiller's ideal?

Why is Schiller searching for such a utopian society? Is this connected to the Modernist belief that, after the first world war, the world was in shambles and that the only way to restore culture was through unifying the fragments? In other words, does context play a particular role in a revival of aesthetic theories?

Finally, what can we take from Schiller in our composition classes? I'm particularly interested in this, because I do believe, on some level, that we favor one kind of knowledge over another. How, then, can we seek to instill the "play" instinct in our students? Is this even a valuable endeavor?