Aesthetics - (Volume 2)

Author: Hegel
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1996-06-01
Features: The studies in this volume undoubtedly touch upon the actual state of the beautiful idea as an artistic ideal, but despite elucidating the concept of ideal artistic works from various perspectives, all the definitions obtained ultimately only generally pertain to ideal artistic works. The beautiful idea, like any general idea, is an integral whole of equally important different aspects, and these aspects themselves must also be manifested or realized. I can call these aspects the various special types of art. They all develop from the content of the concept of the idea, and this content gains concrete existence through art. Sometimes, I also refer to these artistic 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 to which the specific kinds are subordinated, thereby altering it. The "kinds" I refer to are the various mutually differing, and thus concrete, qualities within the beautiful idea, i.e., the idea of the artistic ideal itself. Therefore, the universality of artistic expression is not determined by external factors but by its own development according to its concept. It is precisely this concept that self-develops or self-differentiates into various special modes of artistic expression within an integral whole.