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Tragedy as a symbol of autonomy in Schiller’s aesthetics
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Stoll, Timothy (2023) Tragedy as a symbol of autonomy in Schiller’s aesthetics. The British Journal of Aesthetics, 63 (1). pp. 25-39. doi:10.1093/aesthj/ayab067 ISSN 0007-0904.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/aesthj/ayab067
Abstract
Schiller’s essays on tragedy attempt to argue that tragic experience is ethically valuable by forging a connection with Kant’s conception of autonomy. Standard interpretations hold that the connection lies in the fact that tragedies depict characters (primarily the hero) exercising autonomy. This paper argues that Schiller also views the experience prompted by tragedy as itself involving autonomy. Drawing on Kant’s discussion of aesthetic “symbols”, Schiller holds that the audience members’ experience at the tragedy is isomorphic with the autonomous exercise of practical reason. Only in this way, I argue, can we make sense of Schiller’s contention that tragedy actively cultivates freedom in its viewers. Additionally, the interpretation shows how Schiller can hold that tragedy yields a kind of cognition of transcendental freedom while maintaining Kantian strictures on noumenal knowledge.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
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Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Philosophy | ||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | The British Journal of Aesthetics | ||||||
Publisher: | Oxford University Press | ||||||
ISSN: | 0007-0904 | ||||||
Official Date: | January 2023 | ||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 63 | ||||||
Number: | 1 | ||||||
Page Range: | pp. 25-39 | ||||||
DOI: | 10.1093/aesthj/ayab067 | ||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
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