Forum for Philosophical Studies

Beauty as an idea that can be developed and realized: A historical comparative study of Schiller’s aesthetics

2025-03-19T08:02:33+00:00

Schiller’s work is deeply rooted in Western philosophical traditions and significantly influences the evolution of aesthetics in the nineteenth century. Despite its foundational role, Schiller’s writings exhibit a lack of precision and systematic structure. This paper employs a historical-comparative approach to examine Schiller’s aesthetics in relation to other philosophical perspectives. By re-evaluating and interpreting classical texts, the study aims to provide a comprehensive clarification of Schiller’s aesthetic theory. Schiller conceptualizes beauty as an idea, yet this conception diverges from the notions advanced by Plato and Kant. He reconfigures the relationship between beauty and perfection, suggesting a return to Baumgarten’s principles. In Schiller’s view, perfect beauty encompasses its own reality, thereby addressing and surpassing the subjectivity and abstraction found in Kantian aesthetics. Furthermore, Schiller explores the origin and development of freedom, positing that freedom evolves through its awakening and growth, thereby demonstrating the realizability of beauty and the full potential of human nature.

Kant and biological evolution, contra Ralph Cudworth’s deus ex machina

2025-05-21T01:22:56+00:00

The relationship between Immanuel Kant’s philosophy and the modern theory of biological evolution has been a topic of much scholarly debate with little consensus. It has been generally contended that the amassed confusions about Kant’s views are due to ambiguities in his own thinking, and, as such, perplexed interpretations subsequent to his writings were broadly articulated even in 19th-century Germany. More recent philosophers have sought to emphasize how Kant changed his mind from 1785 when he found evolutionary theories “so monstrous that reason recoils before them” to a reconsideration that “one species would have arisen from the other” as a mere “daring adventure of reason” in 1790. Alternatively, this paper will argue that Kant’s philosophical commitments to biological evolution can be traced to an earlier point, specifically, in his encounter with the deus ex machina concept of Ralph Cudworth (1617–1688) in his True Intellectual System, translated at Jena in 1733. Kant had read Cudworth’s text sometime before writing his Universal Natural History in 1755, influencing his professed adherence to universal physical laws and metaphysical teleology, as well as his opposition to the deus ex machina fallacy of divine interference in the natural biological order. Similar arguments against the deus ex machina concept are also frequently found among evolutionary biologists throughout the 19th–20th centuries, thus placing the pre-critical Kant even among their philosophical ranks. This paper will evaluate these important sources and demonstrate Kant’s continuing relevance to the philosophy of evolutionary biology, including his perspective on teleological judgments.

Good sense: A philosophical analysis of intuition, epistemology, and practical decision-making

2025-06-13T08:47:16+00:00

This paper delves into the philosophical concept of “good sense,” examining its epistemological foundations, psychological components, and its essential role in practical decision-making. Drawing on a broad spectrum of philosophical thought, this work explores how intuition, folk knowledge, scientific reasoning, and language intertwine to guide human decisions. We argue that “good sense” emerges as a vital tool for survival, particularly when individuals lack complete knowledge and must rely on practical, context-sensitive judgments. The discussion extends to real-world implications, such as decision-making in business, everyday life, and ethics, and how “good sense” shapes our understanding of morality, survival, and communication. This analysis concludes by highlighting the importance of “good sense” in reconciling human knowledge with the unpredictability of the world.