Friedrich Schiller's Adualistic Conception of Unity

Abstract

This paper considers three general dilemmas that tend to undermine successful configurations of unity: the either/or dilemma, the synthesis dilemma and the relativism dilemma. It further argues that, in his aesthetic writings, Schiller's critique of Kantian dualisms leads him to an adualistic conception of unity that operates with a different, more inclusive approach to opposition and unification. In order to clarify Schiller's innovative and often misunderstood position, the paper draws on the disjunctive logic recently developed by Friedrich Kümmel. An den Dichter Laß die Sprache dir seyn, was der Körper den Liebenden; er nur Ists, der die Wesen trennt und der die Wesen vereint.1