The Philosophy of Fine Art, volume 1 (of 4): Hegel's Aesthetik
Georg Hegel · en
Inasmuch as it is the fact, then, that the particularity of the
Ideal passes into a relation with the external world through such
development, and by so doing is made partaker in a world, which, so
far from manifesting the ideally free association of the notion and
its external reality, presents an existence which is just that which
it ought not to be, in apprehending the true nature of this relation
we have to consider how far the determinations which affect the Ideal
either in themselves contain immediately the principle of Ideality, or
are to a more or less degree susceptible of it.
In this connection we would direct attention to three fundamental
points of view.
In the _first_ place we have the _actual condition_ of the _world
generally_, which is assumed as involved in individual action and
its specific character. _Secondly_, we have the _particularity_ of
condition, the determination of which introduces difference and tension
within the substantive unity, which is the motive-spring of the action,
in other words the _situation._
Thirdly, we have to consider the situation from the side of
subjectivity, and furthermore the reaction by virtue of which the
conflict and resolution of the element of difference is expressly
asserted, in other words, the _action_ in its strict sense.
1. THE GENERAL WORLD-CONDITION
The ideal subjectivity is as such essentially a personal relation,
a relation, that is to say, of self to every aspect of motion or
activity, in which the self has to assert or perfect its own
substance. And to effect this a world environment is necessary as the
universal ground of its realization. When in reference to this we speak
of _condition_ we understand by this the universally prevailing mode,
under which, within the sphere of spiritual reality, that which is the
_substantive_ and essentially coalescing fabric of the same is present.
In this sense we refer to a _condition_ of education, the sciences,
the religious sense, or even of finance, administration of justice,
family life, and similar examples. All these objects of reference are,
however, merely aspects of one and the same spiritual content, which
is thus in and through them rendered explicit and real. In further
considering the general condition of the world as the universal mode of
the reality of Spirit it will be necessary to pursue our examination
from the point of view of the _Will._ It is through the exercise of
volition that Spirit generally unites itself to-determinate existence;
and the substantial _nexi_ which are immediately present in reality
betray themselves in the specific modes in which the determinations of
Will, ethical and legal conceptions, and, indeed, all that belongs to
that which we are accustomed, in a general way, to define as justice,
actively asserts itself.
The question consequently arises how such a universal condition must be
characterized in order that it may appear adequate to the individuality
of the Ideal.