Hegel

the end of art as truth incarnate

Hugo Falkenheim

pp. 9-86

in: Stephen Snyder, End-of-art philosophy in Hegel, Nietzsche and Danto, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

Abstract

Snyder discusses Hegel's understanding of the nature of art and the dialectical articulation of art's concept in this chapter. Within the framework of his idealism, Hegel's notions of the Sublime, the Beautiful, and the Ugly are juxtaposed with those of Kant. The contrasts made in this chapter regarding the aesthetic theories of each philosopher make clear why, as the dualism of matter and mind is resolved philosophically into the absolute, Hegel's notion of art necessitates its end. An analysis of Hegel's assertion that the spirit of art must pass beyond the historically changing "truth" incarnated in art is undertaken. The conclusion is that art's alleged end is the result of reason's transformation of the sensible. Snyder illustrates how, if the dependence on the quasi-divine absolute is removed as the final telos of history's movement, Hegel's approach opens the way to a humanistic philosophy of culture and art.