Anyone who engages with Schiller's aesthetics will quickly realize that it is far from a closed system. Nevertheless, fundamental tendencies can be identified that run through all these writings. Consistency is not evident in the formulation of theoretical solutions, but in the problems that are repeatedly referenced: the questions arising from the fundamental societal changes at the beginning of the modern era regarding a new foundation of ethics and social order should be connected with the aesthetics that began to assert itself independently from the mid-18th century, in order to find solutions for both areas in this synthesis. Schiller drew from a wide variety of sources; philosophical systems had been, since his intellectually formative time at the Karlsschule, reservoirs of ideas for him. This study traces the intellectual development of Schiller's theoretical writings against this background. The book is particularly aimed at Germanists and philosophers, but also offers stimulating reading for anyone interested in Schiller and his time.