The Philosophy of Fine Art, volume 1 (of 4)
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text
- Extent:
- ~180,000 words · 845 passages
Cite this work
- APAHegel. (n.d.). The Philosophy of Fine Art, volume 1 (of 4). SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel/the-philosophy-of-fine-art-volume-1-of-4
- MLAHegel. "The Philosophy of Fine Art, volume 1 (of 4)." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel/the-philosophy-of-fine-art-volume-1-of-4.
- ChicagoHegel. The Philosophy of Fine Art, volume 1 (of 4). SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel/the-philosophy-of-fine-art-volume-1-of-4.
What it is about
The first volume of the lectures on aesthetics: what artistic beauty is, and why art is not a copy of the world.
Context and history
Hegel did not write these lectures either: editors put them together after his death from his notes and from students' notebooks of different years. The scheme people quote is his — symbolic, classical and romantic art, and the path from architecture to poetry — but the exact wording often is not. The opening definition is worth holding clearly: art is the sensuous appearing of the idea, and therefore neither decoration nor imitation of nature.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
first two Parts are concerned, merely a compressed summary, and only in particular passages is the translation anything but a very free rendering of the original, though there is a far closer approach to this in Part III. I have not seen Mr. Bryant's translation. As any approach to an adequate reproduction of Hegel's writing Mr. Hastie's translation of Michelet's work and Mr. Kedney's analysis are of very little value[5]. Professor Bosanquet's translation is admirable within the limits imposed. To that extent I have merely followed, as I was able, in my friend's footsteps; but this advance covers little more than one sixteenth part of the entire work of 1,600 pages. With regard to all such analyses I entirely concur with Professor Bosanquet's view stated in his preface, that such merely mislead if regarded as in any way a reflex of either Hegel himself or the German text. It is true that this work is--as are in their degree other volumes of the collected edition, the "Outlines of the Philosophy of Right" for example--a heterogeneous product, in our own instance not merely lacking the final revision of the author, but rather put together as such a connected treatise by the editor responsible (i) from several autograph MSS. of Hegel[6], some of which were little more than fragmentary notes for lectures, (ii) supplemented further from notes[7] taken by pupils who attended such lectures, the entire monumental work is an education in itself. It is at any rate one which cannot fail to enlarge our conceptions of the significance and dignity of human art. Nor is this by any means impossible, even though we are unable to concur in, or indeed remain insufficiently qualified to express a judgment upon all or even a few of the most important of its conclusions. But it is perhaps not wholly unnecessary to observe that before venturing upon a verdict in our wisdom we must, as Robert Browning submitted in reference to the criticism passed upon his poe
What is The Philosophy of Fine Art, volume 1 (of 4) about?Summarize The Philosophy of Fine Art, volume 1 (of 4) brieflyWhat are the key ideas in The Philosophy of Fine Art, volume 1 (of 4)?
← Back to Hegel