On the Tragic-Sublime and Tragic Freedom. Thinking with Schiller and Schelling

This paper examines the similarities and differences between Schiller’s and Schelling’s reception of the Kantian sublime and their analyses of the tragic, and the tragic hero in particular. The latter is seen by both authors as an incarnation of the sublime realization of human freedom. Yet, in spite of the similarities, there are also important differences. The aim of this paper is to shed light on these differences and understand them by referring them to both Schelling’s and Schiller’s more broader philosophical stances vis-à-vis human freedom. In doing so, this paper also analyses the ways in which Schelling reinterpreted and reappropriated some of Schiller’s thoughts on the sublime.