The Philosophy of Fine Art, volume 1 (of 4): Hegel's Aesthetik — John Shaqi
The Philosophy of Fine Art, volume 1 (of 4): Hegel's AesthetikHegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich
Philosophy
The Philosophy of Fine Art, volume 1 (of 4): Hegel's Aesthetik
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich
Aesthetics
3. The Externality of a work of Art in relation to a
Public
(_a_) What is implied in the assertion by the artist
of the particular culture of his own times?
(_b_) What may be regarded as truth when the
reference is to a Past, either in an exclusive
or objective sense?
(_c_) What may still be regarded as valid in truth
though the matter be appropriated from a
time and nationality foreign to the artist?
All three questions discussed and illustrated]
C. The Artist
1. Imagination, Genius, and Inspiration
2. The objective character of the artistic presentation
3. Manner, Style, and Originality.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF FINE ART
INTRODUCTION
I
The present inquiry[1] has for its subject-matter _Aesthetic_. It is
a subject co-extensive with the entire _realm of the beautiful_; more
specifically described, its province is that of _Art_, or rather, we
should say, of _Fine Art._
For a subject-matter such as this the term "Aesthetic" is no doubt
not entirely appropriate, for "Aesthetic" denotes more accurately the
science of the senses or emotion. It came by its origins as a science,
or rather as something that to start with purported to be a branch of
philosophy, during the period of the school of Wolff, in other words
when works of art were generally regarded in Germany with reference
to the feelings they were calculated to evoke, as, for example, the
feelings of pleasure, admiration, fear, pity, and so forth. It is owing
to the unsuitability or, more strictly speaking, the superficiality
of this term that the attempt has been made by some to apply the name
"Callistic" to this science. Yet this also is clearly insufficient
inasmuch as the science here referred to does not investigate beauty in
its general signification, but the beauty of art pure and simple. For
this reason we shall accommodate ourselves to the term Aesthetic, all
the more so as the mere question of nomenclature is for ourselves a
matter of indifference. It has as such been provisionally accepted in
ordinary speech, and we cannot do better than retain it. The _term_,
however, which fully expresses our science is "Philosophy of Art," and,
with still more precision, "Philosophy of Fine Art."
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