A classic of eighteenth-century thought, Schiller's treatise on the role of art in society ranks among German philosophy's most profound works. An important contribution to the history of ideas, it employs a political analysis of contemporary society - and of the French Revolution, in particular - to define the relationship between beauty and art. Schiller's proposal of art as fundamental to the development of society and the individual remains an influential concept and this volume offers his philosophy's clearest, most relevant expression.