Friedrich Schiller’s theory of aesthetic education and more-than-human play

During the height of critical theory in the 1960s, political aesthetics garnered significant attention. A key concept was earlier articulated in Ernst Bloch’s exploration of utopia, namely that the arts serve as a space for examining objective possibilities, thereby inspiring political action in the real world. Even earlier, these ideas were also expanded upon in Friedrich Schiller’s “Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man” (which were referred to by Habermas, Marcuse and others). Schiller argued that aesthetics is the domain where we can reconcile the tension between nature and reason, paving the way for a transition to an ethical life grounded in freedom.