ABSTRACT
Rousseau, Kant, and Schiller are linked by related inquiries concerning (a) the development of faculties as the human being departs from original nature for the condition of culture; (b) the emergence of inherent disharmony in that development; and (c) the quest for unity and harmony to resolve the conflicts of culture. They are in accord in arguing that as rational powers grow, the desires and interests expand in such a way as to cause inequality and conflict between persons, as well as conflict within persons between individual satisfactions and the demands of social life and moral duty. They offer strikingly different proposals for how imagination, taste, and the aesthetic have a crucial role in healing the wounds of culture.
