The Philosophy of Fine Art, volume 2 (of 4): Hegel's Aesthetik
Georg Hegel · en
In order, however, that mind may attain the infinity which belongs
to it it must transcend at the same time purely formal and _finite_
personality and rise into the measure of the _Absolute._ That is to
say, Spirit must declare itself as fulfilled with that which is out
and out substantive, and in doing so proclaim itself as a self-knowing
and self-willing subject. Conversely, therefore, what is substantive
and true is no longer to be apprehended as a mere "beyond" relatively
to our humanity, and the anthropomorphism of the Greek view of things
can be struck out; and in the place of this we have humanity as very
and real subjectivity affirmed as the principle, and by virtue of this
change, as we have already seen, anthropomorphism for the first time
reflects a truth of complete and final validity.
2. We have now in a general way to develop the range of subject-matter,
no less than its form, from the earliest phases in the evolution of
this principle, whose configuration, as it thus changes, is conditioned
by the new content of romantic art.
The true principle of the romantic content is absolute inwardness[207],
and the form which corresponds to it, the subjectivity of mind, meaning
by this the comprehension of its self-subsistence and freedom. This
intrinsically infinite principle and explicitly enunciated universal
is the absolute negation of all particularity[208]; it is simple
unity at home with itself, which consumes all that is separable, all
processes of Nature and its succession of birth, passing away, and
reappearance, all the limitations of spiritual existence, and dissolves
all particular gods in its pure and infinite self-identity. In this
Pantheon all gods are dethroned; the flame of the subjective essence
has destroyed them; instead of the plastic polytheism art recognizes
now _one_ God only, _one_ Spirit, _one_ absolute self-subsistence,
which as the absolute knowledge and volition of itself remains in
free union with it, and no longer falls to pieces in the particular
characters and functions we have reviewed above, whose single unit of
cohesion was the force of an obscure Necessity. Absolute subjectivity,
however, in its purity would escape from art altogether, and only be
present in the apprehension of Thought, unless it could enter into
external existence in order that it might be a subjectivity which was
_actual_ if also conformable to its notion, and further could recollect
itself in its own province from out of this reality. And, what is
more, this moment of reality is pertinent to the Absolute, because
the Absolute, as infinite negativity, contains this self-relation--as
simple unity of knowledge at home with itself, and therewith as
_immediacy_--for the final consummation of its activity. On account
also of this its immediate existence, which is rooted in the Absolute
itself, the Absolute declares itself not as the one jealous God, who
merely annuls the aspect of Nature and finite human existence, without