Schiller as Kantian "Vermittler" for Goethe in Jonas Cohn’s Critical Account

This contribution aims to address Jonas Cohn’s interpretation of the relationship between Schiller and Goethe in connection with the legacy of Kantian thought. In Das Kantische Element in Goethes Weltanschauung. Schillers philosophischer Einfluss auf Goethe (1905), Cohn regards Schiller’s work in the context of its connection to Goethe. In addition to re-examining aspects of Schiller’s Wirkungsgeschichte typical of 19th-century German philosophical and scientific culture, Cohn highlights some “lines of continuity” between the two great thinkers, tracing them back to Kant, in an approach that emphasizes points of contact over fractures. With regard to Kant’s legacy (in particular the reception of the Kritik der Urteilskraft), Cohn’s essay can be seen as an attempt to revise the general field of aesthetics from the perspective of a philosophy of values based on the principles of neo-Kantianism of the Baden school. This is a goal Cohn had pursued since the publication of his important book: Allgemeine Ästhetik (1901). In a previous contribution dedicated to Hegelian aesthetics, published in 1902, Cohn clarified his reworking of aesthetics, stating: “I dared to attempt to continue in the wake of Hegel’s thought, to which Kant’s and Schiller’s are connected”.