 Marx & Social harmony:-

 Marx uses the term communism for his vision of a future where a harmonious society
exists, however at this point, it is critical to not confuse it with the version of communism
employed in the twentieth century as it bore a set of very different meanings.
 Communism according to Marx is ‘the annulment of the state’ (Marx & Engels)
[1844], 1978: 84)

 The problem: capitalist relations of production

 Schiller: the problem

 Why does social disharmony exist for Schiller?
 Schiller believed that there was a split in modern man which needed healing. In the
events of the French Revolution, Schiller observed a natural instinct and a need for order
and shared rules. The natural instinct was demonstrated by the mob wanting to
overthrow a tyrannical ruler and the need for order and shared values which had the
potential to prevent chaos from taking over through laws which would have prevented
the execution of the French King. Natural instinct according to Schiller is a ‘sensuous’
response, a primitive surge that reacts violently if efforts were made to suppress it as it
ties man to its animalistic impulses. The latter, according to Schiller is a response which
belongs to a rational mind which has the ability to distinguish man from animal, and
ultimately seeks to overcome the subjectivity of emotions in search of objective
solutions. However, he did not believe in choosing between the order of reason and
man’s chaotic natural animalistic instinct, but rather proposed a middle ground between
them. He proposed moderation as opposed to choosing one over the other. This is
because he understood that universal reason could far too easily allow the legitimisation
of tyranny in the state just as the primitive instincts of man would likewise allow
everyone to only seek their own advantages driven by their own desire and thus leading
to violent and savage behaviour as witnessed in the French revolution.

In addition, Schiller concludes that the violent and chaotic version of the natural instinct
of natural expressed in the French Revolution, could have been prevented with an
adequate balance of reason. The most optimal solution to developing reason in humans
is through education and therefore for ‘Schiller, then, the problem of general political
evolution became at once that of man’s education’ (Grossman, 1968:32). Therefore,
according to Schiller education can overcome social disharmony.

 The French revolution demonstrates the excesses of the states of reason and the state of
nature.
 The events in France led him to great philosophic reflection, and by the end of 1792
involved him in two ventures. The first was a letter to the French Chamber of Deputies
requesting them to spare the life of the King. A few weeks earlier, the French chamber
of deputies had made him an honorary citizen of the new French republic. Obviously
 Schiller’s letter on behalf of the French King arrived too late and or had no effect, as the
king was executed in January of 1793.
 For Schiller the revolution prompted him to reflect on the effects of great events on the
general public. For example, He discerned among the masses in France an ‘experience
deficit’ and concluded that ‘the sense as well the taste for public life must be learned’.
To make use of political freedom, one must first be free inwardly. For example, for
Schiller, ‘the most perfect of all works of art’ is ‘the construction of a true political
freedom’.
 Schiller argued that it was a ‘vain hope’ to think that political freedom could be achieved
without the aesthetical education of the population, in this letter, Schiller states
emphatically that ‘one must declare every attempt of such an alteration of state as
untimely, and every thereupon grounded hope as chimerical, until the division in the
inner man is once again dissolved, and his nature is sufficiently fully developed, in order
itself to be the artist and to guarantee the reality of political creation of reason’.
 For Schiller if education is to overcome some of the problems for everyone he witnessed
in the French revolution then it should be for everyone, otherwise you won’t be able to
stop these violence acts which were witnessed in the French revolution. He states that
aseathic education is not just about