Tan Bing'er: Goethe said that beauty is nature; Schiller said that beauty is freedom in phenomena

"The decline of literature is a sign of the decline of a nation, and the two go hand in hand when they go downhill" – Goethe

"The soil for genius is harder to find than genius" – Schiller

Compared with his achievements in drama and poetry creation, Schiller seems to be better at the exploration of poetics and aesthetic creativity. This dramatist and aesthete who interpreted tragic conflicts from a dialectical point of view, the founder of the Western theory of tragic conflicts, and the founder of the Western theory of the relationship between the sublime and the tragic, actually admired Kant's idealistic philosophy in particular, and was a typical idealistic dualist.

Because he used an idealistic point of view to examine nature and did not believe in the truth and reliability of objective nature, he spent his life seeking a supernatural illusory ideal life. In his view, the world consists of two separate parts, one is real and the other is an ideal (i.e., conceptual) world. Therefore, he has always proceeded from subjectivity and pursued the beauty of empty ideals. Of course, the perspective of looking at the problem is different, and it doesn't matter whether it is good or bad.

Compared to Schiller, Goethe is different. Goethe was deeply influenced by Rousseau, Diderot, Spinoza and others, and was undoubtedly a materialist and atheist philosophically. In his view, nature is an objectively existing whole; all things are real and have their own necessity; the world is a material whole: nature itself is everything; all are among the ta, and the ta are in all men. At the same time, his view of nature is quite dialectical: nature is changing and developing, a process full of development and change every moment of life.

Due to differences in philosophical concepts, Goethe and Schiller embarked on the path of realism and idealism, respectively. In Goethe's view, nature is everything, and creation must be inseparable from nature. Schiller, on the other hand, believed that ideas were higher than nature, and that it was his creative purpose to draw inspiration (unnatural) from the ideal of emptiness (i.e., to create from one's subjective imagination or romantic fantasies).

In terms of artistic aesthetics, Goethe proposed the concept of allegory and symbolism. He believes that allegory transforms phenomena into a concept, into an image, but the result is this: the concept is always limited to the image, completely confined to the image, and can be expressed by the image. Symbolism transforms the phenomenon into an idea, the idea into an image, and the result is that the idea always plays an endless role in the image and is elusive, and even if it is expressed in all languages, it is still inexpressible.

It can be seen that the biggest difference between the two is "concept" and "concept". Concepts are generalizations of logical reasoning, which are abstract; concepts are generalizations of images, which are concrete. The allegory is to find the special for the general, and the special is limited to the general; the symbol is to show the general in the special, to embody the infinite from the finite.

Goethe proceeded from nature and believed that nature is really beautiful, and only real nature can bring beauty to people. That is to say, only the authenticity of the work is the art of beauty and beauty, and beauty is nature. Schiller, on the other hand, proceeded from the subjective imagination and believed that the ideal thing is beautiful, that is, what can give people freedom is beautiful, and beauty is freedom in phenomena.

Both Goethe and Schiller's aesthetic ideas are rich. Although Goethe did not have too many specialized monographs on aesthetic theory, he had a very exquisite aesthetic theory from the perspective of materialism in terms of creative methods. The aesthetic ideas in his works are richer than those in his specialized theoretical writings. His aesthetic ideas have had an impact on many later aestheticians, especially his theories and aesthetic ideas in creation, which have had a great impact on the aesthetics of world literature and art. Although Schiller pursued empty ideal beauty, his aesthetic ideas were richer and more precious, establishing a bridge from Kant's aesthetics to Hegel's aesthetics.

Although some people deliberately equate the "simple and sentimental poetry" in Schiller's poetics with "realism and romanticism", some even regard Schiller's poetics as a theory of "advocating conceptual creation", thus understanding the relationship between his poetics and creation as "simplification and formatting". However, even if Schiller's literary creation itself has a conceptual tendency, it must not be partial and comprehensive, and it must not be criticized. Only judging Schiller's thoughts and works from a macroscopic perspective is the behavior of a wise man.

Goethe is ten years older than Schiller and has long been known for his poetry. As a minister of the Duchy of Weimar, he lived a good life, opposed Kant, and believed in Herder. Schiller, on the other hand, was clearly under Goethe and had a meager income, but he was a disciple of Kant. The two people come from different backgrounds and have different views, but their opinions can tend to be the same. Therefore, it is not difficult to understand that they can build a deep friendship so that they are all buried together in Weimar after death. In today's world, I am afraid that there is no such Thing as Goethe and Schiller, and there is no such talented close friend.