“Only a Matter of Style”: A Controversial Issue Between Schiller and Fichte. Regarding Schiller’s On the Necessary Limitations in the Use of Beautiful Forms

The present article aims to approach in detail the reasons that lead to a discussion between Schiller and Fichte in 1795 on the appropriate phi- losophical ‘style’ of writing. This discussion led Schiller to publish On the necessary limitations in the use of beautiful forms. I intend to show that, to Fichte, this argument is based exclusively on a matter of style that only relates to philosophy supplementarily, whereas in Schiller’s case the question on ‘style’ leads directly to the heart of his philosophical and aesthetic-political proposal. To Schiller, as I will show, writing is a constitutive moment of truth; in consequence, an adequate philosophical presenta- tion (Darstellung) is also one in which the truth’s most complete and perfect configuration takes place.