Schiller As Philosopher: A Re-Examination

by Frederick C. Beiser

Fred Beiser, renowned as one of the world's leading historians of German philosophy, presents a brilliant new study of Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805), rehabilitating him as a philosopher worthy of serious attention. Beiser shows, in particular, that Schiller's engagement with Kant is far more subtle and rewarding than is often portrayed. Promising to be a landmark in the study of German thought, Schiller as Philosopher will be compulsory reading for any philosopher, historian, or literary scholar engaged with the key developments of this fertile period.

Genres: Philosophy, Romanticism

298 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Frederick C. Beiser, one of the leading scholars of German Idealism, is a Professor of Philosophy at Syracuse University. Prior to joining Syracuse, he was a member of the faculty at Indiana University, Bloomington where he received a 1999-2000 NEH Faculty Fellowship. He has also taught at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Harvard and Yale University. Beiser earned his DPhil. degree from Oxford University under the direction of Charles Taylor and Isaiah Berlin.

Beiser's first book, The Fate of Reason: German Philosophy from Kant to Fichte (Harvard, 1987) was widely influential in revising the commonly held, but notorious accounts of German Idealism. In this book, Beiser sought to reconstruct the background of German Idealism through the narration of the story of the Spinoza or Pantheism controversy. Consequently, a great many figures, whose importance was hardly recognized by the English speaking philosophers, were given their proper due.
Beiser has also written on the German Romantics and 19th century British philosophy.

Reviews

[Stanley Sharpey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Comprehensive and clear like everything by Beiser I have read up to this point. Largely focuses on Schiller's relationship with Kant which is at the same time less and more antagonistic than traditionally thought.

Often reads like a a collection of discrete essays on different parts of Schiller's oeuvre rather than a continuous text. There is a fair bit of repetition without much acknowledgement that topics have been previously covered.

Was reading alongside Schiller's Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man. Introduced me to On Grace and Dignity and the Kalliasbriefe which both seem worth reading. Probably a good introduction to Schiller's oeuvre for the philosophically inclined (some of the plays get mentioned in later chapters when dealing with the theory of tragedy but obviously the book is focused mainly on Schiller's explicitly philosophical works).

[Hooper Bring]

KB says of this: “The purpose of this book is to rehabilitate Schiller as one of the main post-kantian philosophers. Excellent reconstruction of his education, reading. Discussions of his dissertations. Beiser neglects his poetry as a source of philosophy though”.