Aesthetics (Volume 2)

Author: (German) Hegel
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1979-01-01
Features: The research conducted in this volume indeed touches upon the actual state of the aesthetic ideal as the beautiful concept, but despite elaborating on the concept of ideal artistic works from multiple perspectives, all the definitions obtained ultimately only generally pertain to ideal artistic works. The beautiful concept, like any general concept, is an integral whole of equally important differences, and these differences themselves must also be manifested or realized. I can call these differences the various special types of art. They all originate from the content of the concept of the idea, which gains concrete existence through art. At times, I also refer to these art types as different kinds of ideals, but not in the conventional sense of the word "kind," where the ideal is treated as a general category with the special kinds subordinated to it, thereby altering it. The "kinds" we refer to here are the various mutually differing, and thus concrete, determinations within the concept of the beautiful idea, i.e., the artistic ideal. Therefore, the universality of artistic expression is not determined by external factors but by its own self-development or self-differentiation into various special modes of artistic expression within the concept.