The Bankruptcy of Love: Schiller's Early Ethics

This paper makes a case for the originality of Schiller’s early ethics. Far from passively mirroring the mainstream sentimental views of the German Enlightenment, the young Schiller’s moral philosophy predates those ideas which the mature Schiller is usually said to have endorsed only because of their belonging to the Kantian system. At stake is the inadequacy of love as a moral principle due to its intrinsically egoistic nature, which is revealed in Schiller’s early plays. Schiller’s departure from his earlier philosophy of love should no longer be ascribed to Kant, and dramatic literature should be credited with a crucial value for moral reasoning.