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Schiller,
Hume, and Aesthetic Semblance Page 2
As Hegel's philosophy is a development from Schiller, to fully
understand the differences one must first understand Schiller's
notion of said topic. Schiller views pure subjectivity as the
end point to his process of aesthetic development. The key to
this individual subjectivity would be one's ability to self-govern
their own aesthetic experience. Thus the notion of aesthetic semblance,
an intangible aspect of art, can help Schiller accomplish his
goal. Because semblance is essentially a symbolic component, it
can easily be related to subjectivity.
"Delight
in semblance" is a human condition that we all have, says
Schiller (193). At the beginning, Schiller is simply establishing
the notion, and he backs himself by saying, "To despise it,
is to despise the fine arts altogether, the very essence of which
is semblance" (193). By making these claims, Schiller has
established the concept of semblance to whom it concerns…those
who are concerned. In other words, semblance is a component of
fine art that cannot be ignored, the argument is whether or not
it is important, not whether or not it exists.
A key point in Schiller's argument comes when he validates semblance,
"because one is never in danger of substituting it for truth"
(193). Schiller is convinced that humans are able to separate
semblance from reality, and that it is not deceptive in any fashion.
Our play-drive seeks pleasure from the semblance, but at the same
time, we do not loose touch with reality. In fact, Schiller thinks
we should easily be able to distinguish between the two saying,
"Once man has got to the point of distinguishing semblance
from reality, form from body, he is also in a position to abstract
one from the other, and has indeed already done so by the very
fact of distinguishing between them" (195).
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