Nostalgia and love in German aesthetics

This book is an attempt to establish a link between Greek nostalgia, notably a movement that flourished in Germany in the second half of the 18th century, and love, as a theme of philosophy that Nietzsche would call life-affirming thought. To make this journey, we start with the fundamental contributions of Winckelmann, Lessing and Kant, without whom Schiller, as a philosopher and playwright, would not have left his important reflection on theories of the tragic and beauty, which culminate in the project of aesthetic education in modern times. But even though he offered this remarkable project, he himself was reticent about the direction man and humanity were taking at the end of the Enlightenment. We hope to show that the critical exercise inherent in philosophical activity was fundamental for the return to the Greeks, for the proposal of an aesthetic education and also for the establishment of philosophy as an essential movement for man, especially when it approaches art and politics.