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
It is, in short, an existence
or reality which is unequal to the unity of the notion. We may
therefore say that the notion is valid in every sphere of actuality. At
the same time the main point to be determined is whether the notion in
its ideal concreteness is actually completed in the particular unity
presented, wherein the two aspects posited in opposition persist in
no ultimate self-subsistence and coherence over against each other,
but are rather ideal phases which tend to pass into a higher unity
which cancels such opposition. And the reality of this highest mode
of union is only reached when we enter the sphere of truth, freedom,
and the satisfaction which they create. The higher life which belongs
to this sphere, this supreme enjoyment of truth, which as feeling is
called "blessedness," and as conscious thought "contemplation," we may
describe generically as the life known to religion. For religion is
just this universal domain[184], in virtue of which the _one_ concrete
totality of the World comes to each man in union with himself, as his
essential substance, while it remains no less for consciousness the
essential truth of Nature. And it is this profounder truth of the Real
which alone proves itself invincible over all that is merely particular
and finite, being as it is the one absolute harmony wherein all that is
otherwise discordant and opposed is finally resolved. Now it is through
its direct concern in the true, regarded as the absolute object of
consciousness, that Art belongs to the supreme sphere of Spirit, and
it is to be placed, in respect to its content, if in a more specific
sense, on the same basis as religion and philosophy. I connect these
two last for the reason that philosophy has no other object than God.
In its substance it is in fact rational theology, and in its service of
the truth a continual service of God.
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