'Man defines himself by his deeds - and what kind of image of man do we see in the mirror of our present times?' The poet and dramatist Friedrich Schiller was also a profound philosopher, who described his work On the Aesthetic Education of Man as 'the best thing that I have done in my life'. This impassioned treatise analyses politics, revolution and human nature to define the relationship between beauty, art and morality. Expressed as a series of letters to a patron, it argues that only an aesthetic education - rather than government reform, religion or moral teachings - can achieve a truly free society, and must be placed at the heart of human experience. One of the most important works of German philosophy, its arguments remain as arresting and inspiring as when they were first written. Translated by Keith Tribe with an introduction and notes by Alexander Schmidt German poet and philosopher Friedrich Schiller's famous text on art, politics, and societyThe artist is certainly the child of his age, but all the worse for him if he is at the same time its pupil, even worse its minion. One of the most profound works of German philosophy, Friedrich Schiller's On the Aesthetic Education of Man examines politics, revolution, and the history of ideas in order argue that art should have a greater role in shaping society. Deeply disillusioned with the course of the French Revolution, Schiller expressed his complaints in a series of letters to a patron, an impassioned attempt to drag mankind upward from failure to greatness by placing ideas of aesthetic education at the heart of the human experience: Our era has actually taken both wrong turnings, and has fallen prey to coarseness on the one path, lethargy and perversity on the other. Having strayed along both paths, it is beauty that can lead [us] back. One of Germany's greatest political statements from a time of revolutionary change, Schiller's arguments are as arresting, challenging, and inspiring today as when they were first written.