Abstract

Millán Brusslan focuses upon “Life Force or the Rhodian Genius: A Tale,” an essay Humboldt wrote for Schiller’s journal, Die Horen, to demonstrate that both thinkers are propelled by a life force (Lebenskraft) to the aesthetic realm. In Concerning the Sublime (1801), Schiller’s presentation of nature takes place as the limits of our cognitive faculties (the powers of apprehension) are balanced with that which is beyond mastery, taking us to the realm of freedom, where the ideas of the sublime and of beauty find their home. Millán Brusslan argues that Schiller and Humboldt define this home for beauty and the sublime in distinct ways. Humboldt’s realm of freedom is nature itself, whereas Schiller’s idea of freedom is rooted in the human subject, a subject which eclipses nature.