von Guido K. Tamponi
Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2016, 302 pages

This  book  is  the  first  monograph  in  German  dealing  exclusively  with  F.C.S.  Schiller,  until now and even given today‘s „Renaissance of Pragmatism“  the most  neglected of the classical pragmatists. It tries for the first time to  analyze all aspects of his oeuvre by conceptualizing it as  a  “twofold humanism”:  consisting  of  a  more  descriptive  „methodical  humanism“  and  a more  normative  „prophetic humanism“.  These two  and irreducible  perspectives  of  Schiller‘s  writing  allow  him to take into account the human condition not, as most of the interpreters  suggest, in a radical but in a holistical manner: man existing as an individual and as a member  of  society,  as  an  I  in the community  with  God,  as  a  biological  fact  and  as  a  still  not  yet realized ideal in the light of multiple forms of criticism and reform. Thus it becomes clear that Schiller‘s  complex thought  –  logical, ethical, social,  educational and  metaphysical –  cannot be confined  to  individual  aspects,  particularly  not  to  the  topos  of  the  „theory  of  truth“,  as  the common  „reading“  of  his  writing  stereotypically  insinuates.  Rather,  it  revolves  around  the most fundamental  question of philosophy  as such:  concerned with  the meaning of life  in its  entirety, especially in the light of the modern threat of nihilism and pessimism.

See the volume and the table of contents on the publisher website