Art and Aesthetics in the Works of German Philosopher G. W. F. Hegel (1770-1831)

FAIN: FEL-257028-18

Lydia L. Moland
Colby College (Waterville, ME 04901-8840)

A book on Hegel’s aesthetics based on his unpublished German lectures on art and aesthetics gives between 1820 and 1829.

Hegel’s notorious claim that art “ends” means that, despite its potential for explaining art’s role in human experience and its ability to interpret particular artworks, Hegel’s aesthetic theory is often neglected. My interpretation of this theory in my book manuscript, "Hegel's Aesthetics: The Art of Idealism," restores its potential by embedding it in Hegel’s philosophical idealism, analyzing particular artworks he discusses, and connecting his thought to the vibrant aesthetic debates of his time. These factors reveal that although Hegel claims art can end in several ways—within a historical period, by exhausting conceptual possibilities, or by disintegrating into the agreeable—his belief in its centrality to human life never wavered. His theory clarifies art’s value in general and offers a foundation for interpreting contemporary art in particular. I am applying for this grant in order to do necessary research for chapter 10 in Berlin and to bring the entire manuscript to completion.

Associated Products

Hegel's Aesthetics: The Art of Idealism (Book)
Title: Hegel's Aesthetics: The Art of Idealism
Author: Lydia L Moland
Abstract: This is the first comprehensive interpretation of Hegel's philosophy of art in English in thirty years. In a new analysis of Hegel's notorious end of art thesis, Hegel's Aesthetics shows the indispensability of Hegel's aesthetics for understanding his philosophical idealism and introduces a new claim about his account of aesthetic experience. In a departure from previous interpretations, Lydia Moland argues for considering Hegel's discussion of individual arts--architecture, sculpture, painting, music, and poetry--on their own terms, unlocking new insights about his theories of perception, feeling, selfhood, and freedom. This new approach allows Hegel's philosophy to engage with modern aesthetic theories and opens new possibilities for applying Hegel's aesthetics to contemporary art. Moland further elucidates his controversial analysis of symbolic, classical, and romantic art through clarifying Hegel's examples of each. By incorporating newly available sources from Hegel's lectures on art, this book widely expands our understanding of the particular artworks Hegel discusses as well as the theories he rejects. Hegel's Aesthetics further situates his arguments in the intense philosophizing about art among his contemporaries, including Kant, Lessing, Herder, Schelling, and the Schlegel brothers. Ultimately, the book offers a rich vision of the foundation of his ideas about art and the range of their application, confirming Hegel as one of the most important theorists of art in the history of philosophy.
Year: 2019
Primary URL: https://www.worldcat.org/title/hegels-aesthetics-the-art-of-idealism/oclc/1085698981&referer=brief_results
Primary URL Description: Hegel's Aesthetics: The Art of Idealism, Oxford University Press
Access Model: Print
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780190847326
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

“Sensing Freedom: Aesthetic Autonomy from Kant to Hegel” (Book Section)
Title: “Sensing Freedom: Aesthetic Autonomy from Kant to Hegel”
Author: Lydia L. Moland
Editor: Gerad Gentry
Abstract: The idea of freedom is definitive for both Kant’s definition of beauty and his description of the sublime. In beauty, humans experience a free lawfulness: a state in which we are guided by but not restricted to conceptual analysis. In the sublime, we are reminded of the freedom that allows us to transcend even the fear of death. Although Hegel’s definition of freedom and his philosophy of art differ significantly from Kant’s, the idea that art allows us to experience freedom is common to both philosophers. Humans’ understanding of freedom is pivotal to the emergence of artistic genres from the Egyptian sphinx to the romantic novel, according to Hegel; it also explains the joy we experience through painting and especially through poetry. This essay will trace this Kantian inheritance in Hegel’s thought.
Year: 2021
Publisher: Routledge
Book Title: Kantian Legacies in German Idealism

The Sound of Feeling: Hegel on Music (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: The Sound of Feeling: Hegel on Music
Abstract: Hegel claims that music is part of the experience of subjectivity and that through understanding music, we understand both the self and its relation to time. Understanding his philosophy of music is therefore crucial to understanding both his philosophy of the self and of time.
Author: Lydia Moland
Date: 10/01/2021
Location: Oxford, United Kingdom (virtual)
Primary URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXiFBiiad2k

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