Question:  Hi there Lyn, that question on Meno does really intrigue me, on how is it that we are re-remembering this concept of--when we discover a principle, as Plato says--that really does intrigue; but also, I've been discussing and learning about Schiller, and really excited about this concept of the education of emotions; and freedom as in choosing one's duty, in a sense. And I'd love some discussion on that. Thank you.

LaRouche: Well, the remembering is--how do you remember? Take a simple case of remembering. Did you ever re-experience an original discovery made by somebody thousands of years ago? For example, The Meno? The Meno is a self-proving hypothesis, on this one, hmm? Because, what you're doing--and he's attributing this, of course, to Theatetus, who is attributed to an actual person, which did occur; or at least a discovery comparable to that. So now, you're re-experiencing a discovery of universal principle, which was made thousands of years ago.

Or, take some of the discoveries of Archimedes, the principles of Archimedes, the same kind of thing. You are re-living a discovery, made thousands of years ago, by another individual: You're re-experiencing the experience of the mind of that individual, inside your own mind. That's remembering. It's that simple. Now, the question of education, is a related question: Moral education is a transfer of the sense of identity, from immediate sense-perceptual gratification, or pleasure/pain, into a sense of ideas, and a sense of principles.  Therefore, moral education shifts the emphasis from the sense-perception, gratification--that sort of thing--into things of, "What should I do with my life?" "What's my life all about? What's its purpose? How does my life fit, in the history of mankind?" Because, remember, that Schiller's presentation of this, is situated so. Because Schiller has a concept of history, which he's developed in the course of his work, up to that point, which says, "Let's start with the development of European civilization, from the Classical Greek, of Homer, Solon, so forth, to the modern times. Let's take that as our subject: History. This is not all of humanity, but here is a chunk of history, which we can study culturally from the inside, from the development of what we call 'European culture.' Its ups and downs, its side turns, its failures, and so forth. Hmm?"

So therefore, it's moral education. Because what you're doing--Schiller laid emphasis on the moral importance of drama, of Classical drama: That drama is the way to educate the morals of the population. Why? Let's take a case, like some of the historical plays of Shakespeare. Now Shakespeare's plays were actually based on historical research of some accuracy; particularly on Henry II through Richard III, that phase, a very important study of history.

So therefore, in this process, the person in the audience, if the drama is done well, their attention is shifted, from looking at the figures of the stage--very quickly, that's the job of the actors and the staging, to do that: is to get the member of the audience, to suddenly shift into the stage of the imagination. Just as Shakespeare writes, with the part of "Chorus," at the opening of Henry V, is to shift from the stage, that's being seen, to the stage of the imagination; as described by "Chorus" in this Henry V.

So, at that process, you have a person coming into the theater, into the audience--sits there. He's a little person. He's a little me. He has his business; he has life, and so forth. He's a little me; he has no power; no power over society, no perceived power--he's just a little me in society. But, he's coming into the theater, to be regaled, and to escape from his particular life, into thinking about something else; therapeutic experience. In the process, he finds himself excited by what is happening in the drama.

It's a drama which corresponds to real history. And all great drama has to have an historical basis; maybe, like for example, Eugene O'Neill's modern drama The Iceman Cometh there's a perfect example of this kind of thing. It grabs you, because it's based in reality; and it's based on a very interesting kind of reality. Any way, it grabs you.

Now, here you are; but, what you're looking at in these dramas, most Classical drama: Classical drama deals always with states, nations. It doesn't work, if you go with something like a nation. Why doesn't it work? Because, the trick of the Classical drama, especially the Classical tragedy, is not to get to the minutiae of life: But, it's to lift the little citizen, sitting in his chair, in the theater, to lift his imagination to where he is now looking down upon some important figure in statecraft, in some part of history. He's looking at that figure. He's looking at the interaction around the figure. He's seeing, in the case of tragedy, how a society dooms itself, because of some complex of problems.

Now, the citizen is looking at this process of how the society fails--say Hamlet--in the connection between, shall we say, the Second and Third Act soliloquies by Hamlet, and this final scene of Hamlet, where the corpse is being carried out, and Horatio is making a commentary, at that point, on what's happened. So, the citizen is suddenly, instead of being "little me," or "little citizen from the neighborhood, sitting in the theater," is suddenly passing judgment, showing insight into why that society failed! And his passion is, "If only that hadn't happened!" "If only that hadn't happened. We must not let that happen--in that case." Or, "We must learn the lesson, of how that happened. We must not let that happen to us!"

So, this citizen, as the end of the drama, leaves the theater, and walks onto the street, as Schiller describes it: He's become a better person, than entered; because he's been elevated, from littleness, into becoming a true citizen, in principle. Of looking upon society, from the top, and saying what kind of leadership, what kind of culture, what kind of behavior, does the society require; or at least, what must it avoid, in order to survive.

And so, Schiller's approach to history, is exactly that: The moral education of the individual, lies in looking at history, as the Jena lectures of Schiller presented it, from the whole history of European civilization, European culture, from the Classical Greek period. And, looking at that, as one fabric. And trying to see oneself, in the here and now, as like a little person, in the theater, seeing that whole panoply of European cultural development over thousands of years, as if it were a single tragic drama, or quasi-tragic drama; and trying to find in that, what Schiller called "the sublime." The sublime being a sense of what you must do, to go outside, the limitations of tragic societies, to prevent them from becoming tragic.

And at that point, you have the true moral education of citizen. The citizen, then, leaves the theater, and perhaps is inspired to take up a profession, or to change his life, or her life, in some way, to try to achieve the sublime: That is, to rise above tragedy, to solutions. And that is the moral education of the individual.

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