Kant and Schiller on pure ethics: why philosophers should concern themselves with German literature (and vice versa)

This essay deals with Kant’s and Schiller’s ethical views in order to show that there was far more agreement between them than is usually admitted. Kant and Schiller did not propose the same ethical system, yet their convictions were not completely antithetical, especially regarding the issue of purism and emotions. Quite surprisingly, Schiller can be rather considered as the first supporter of the so-called ‘method of isolation’ which was elaborated by Herbert J. Paton in the 1940s and which renewed the interest in Kantian ethics in the second half of the twentieth century. The paper suggests that the reason of the misunderstanding of Schiller’s pivotal role is the high degree of specialization of the academic system which, on the one hand, led (and still leads some of) the Schiller experts to see in Kant the philosophical personification of an abstract and one-sided rejection of feelings and, on the other hand, gave to Kant scholars the occasion to maintain the prejudice according to which Schiller is the starting point in a long tradition of misinterpretations. The final scope of this paper is, therefore, to prove that a true interdisciplinary approach is the only solution.