Letters of Aesthetic Education, translated into Letters of Aesthetic Education, is the representative work of Schiller, a German classical aesthete. It's 27 letters written by the author to Danish Prince Chris Duke Qian in 1793- 1794, which was compiled and published in 1795. Pursuing the perfection of human nature and advocating rational freedom are the core of Schiller's aesthetic education thought.
The book holds that modern capitalist civilization is the root of the division of human nature and cuts off the internal connection of human nature. Because "enjoyment and labor, means and purpose, efforts and rewards are out of touch with each other, people will always be bound to a lonely fragment of the whole", which will inevitably lead to the division of human nature.
Schiller believes that human nature is not only limited by "perceptual impulse", that is, the material nature imposed on people from the aspect of natural inevitability, but also by "rational impulse (formal impulse)", that is, the will imposed on people from the aspect of spiritual inevitability. This has caused the division of human nature.
In order to restore the divided human nature, "to solve political problems through experience, we must adopt aesthetic methods, because it is through beauty that people can be free." Violent revolution and state power cannot solve the problem of human nature division. Perfect human nature should be the harmonious unity of perceptual impulse and formal impulse, and this harmonious unity can only be realized through the intermediary of "the third impulse" (that is, the game impulse).
Finally, the significance of the game and the highest social ideal are discussed. It is believed that when the aesthetic game reaches the advanced stage, beauty itself becomes the object of people's pursuit, and then the kingdom of aesthetic representation will be established, but it can only be found among a few outstanding people. The book's views on human nature's self-division, game impulse and aesthetic game have had a far-reaching impact on later art theory and aesthetics.