Christine Abbt was a guest on the podcast of METIS, the portal for wisdom research and wisdom literature at ETH Zurich.
Frederike Maas and Michael Hampe spoke to her about: ‘Schiller's aesthetic education as a doctrine of wisdom?’
For Friedrich Schiller, wisdom means the mediation of the sensual and the abstract and thus the harmonious convergence of nature and will. According to Schiller, those who approach wisdom deepen their understanding of the manifold interactions and the interplay of plan and chance. This includes, first and foremost, the realisation of human susceptibility to all possible forms of hubris. For Schiller, art plays a special role in the approach to wisdom. Above all, the theatre makes an indispensable contribution to this development of understanding and the expansion of sensitivity. The theatre entertains and challenges the senses and intellect without overtaxing them. It enables encounters with countless variations of humanity in elaborate characters. It holds up a mirror and refines perspectives. In the performance of the play, people lose and maintain themselves at the same time, according to the ideal.