Perfection of Freedom

D.C. Schindler is Associate Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Humanities at Villanova University. He is the author of Hans Urs von Balthasar and the Dramatic Structure of Truth (2004) and Plato's Critique of Impure Reason (2008).

• AcknowledgmentsAbbreviationsIntroduction: On the German Contribution: Giving Form to Freedom1. Friedrich Schiller's Dramatic Philosophy: Freedom in FormI. On the Significance of StyleII. Biographical BackgroundIII. Nature Speaks to NatureIV. Writing as a Free GiftV. Meaning in MotionVI. Elements of the DramaticVII. FreestyleVIII. Poet or Philosopher?2. An Aesthetics of Freedom: Schiller and the Living GestaltI. Introduction: Schiller's BreakthroughII. The Analogy of FormIII. Form Overcoming FormIV. Manifest Freedom in NatureV. Heautonomy and HeteronomyVI. Freedom and Human NatureVII. Living Gestalt and Human WholenessVIII. The Seriousness of PlayIX. A Criticism and the Question of ContradictionX. Nobility or Bourgeois Aestheticism?3. The Dark Roots of Life: Organic Form as a Symbol of Freedom in Schelling's NaturphilosophieI. The Philosophy of the FutureII. The Origins of Schelling's NaturphilosophieIII. The Impoverishment of NatureIV. The Impoverishment of SpiritV. Naturphilosophie and the Place of the OrganismVI. Natural FreedomVII. Freedom or Form?4. From Organism to Incarnation: The Fall and Redemption of Finite Form in Schelling's Late PhilosophyI. Ontological FreedomII. The Fate of the Real in the Early SystemsIII. The Positivity of Finite FreedomIV. The Actuality of Evil and Love in HistoryV. Creation as TheogonyVI. Love, Nature, and Freedom: A Final Assessment5. Freedom as the Concrete Form of Reason in Hegel's Philosophy of RightI. Introduction: Hegel's UniquenessII. Preliminary ConsiderationsIII. Rational PoliticsIV. Political ReasonV. On the Meaning of ActualityVI. Philosophical SourcesVII. The Importance of Being FiniteVIII. The Will as Concrete FreedomIX. Conclusion6. "The 'I' That Is 'We' and the 'We' That Is 'I'": On the Sociality of Freedom in Hegel and Its ExcessesI. The Controversy Surrounding Hegel's Conception of the StateII. Communal SpiritIII. Sittlichkeit as Social FormIV. Freedom and Absolute Spirit7. A Dramatic Conclusion: Opening Up Actual PossibilityBibliographyIndex

David Schindler has written a profound book on freedom. Through his penetrating analysis of Schiller, Schelling, and Hegel, he offers us nothing less than an alternative to the modern notion of freedom as freedom of choice. . . . The Perfection of Freedom wears its erudition lightly in a compelling display of philosophical thinking and revisioning that will take us beyond modernity by going through it.