Between Transcendence and Historicism: The Ethical Nature of the Arts in Hegelian Aesthetics

271 Pages·2006·1.71 MB·English

by  Brian K. Etter

Between
Transcendence
and Historicism
SUNY Series in Hegelian Studies
Edited by William Desmond
Between
Transcendence
and Historicism
The Ethical Nature of the Arts in Hegelian Aesthetics
Brian K. Etter
(cid:2)
_______________ _______________
State University of New York Press
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Etter, Brian K.
Between transcendence and historicism : the ethical nature of the arts
in Hegelian aesthetics / Brian K. Etter.
p. cm. — (SUNY series in Hegelian studies)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0–7914–6657–4 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 1770–1831—Aesthetics.
2. Aesthetics—Moral and ethical aspects. I. Title. II. Series.
B2949.A4E88 2006
111(cid:2).85(cid:2)092—dc22
2005007685
ISBN–13: 978–0–7914–6657–5 (hardcover : alk. paper)
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
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Preface vii
Abbreviations ix
Introduction 1
PartI. Art between Transcendence and Historicism
Chapter 1. Is Art Necessary? 13
Chapter 2. Beauty and the Transcendence of the Ideal 37
Chapter 3. The Historicity of the Ideal and the End of Art 57
PartII. The Ethical Nature of the Arts
Chapter 4. Beauty, the Ideal, and Representational Art 83
Chapter 5. The Sounds of the Ideal 105
Chapter 6. The Ethical Function of Poetry 123
Chapter 7. Beauty and Ornament in Architectural Styles 147
PartIII. The Foundations of Art
Chapter 8. Art and the Beauty of the Ethical Order 173
Chapter 9. Normativity in the Arts and the Particularity
of Tradition 193
Chapter 10. Art and the Beauty of the Absolute 209
Notes 223
Bibliography 245
Index 257
v

Preface
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T his book is written out of the conviction that, after a cen-
tury of modernist avant-garde artistic movements, the
nature of the arts needs to be rethought. It is intended
for those who are open to the possibility that the arts pose a problem
within modern society; that criticism of the arts is a legitimate option;
and that what philosophers and theorists of the past have said about
art is potentially worthwhile. It argues, specifically, that what Hegel
had to say about the arts is important for a perspective that is related
to the characteristic attitudes of modernity, yet is able to ground criti-
cisms of the arts both in his day and in our own time. It also argues
that Hegel is important in the way he interprets artistic traditions as
he knew them, transforming long-standing artistic theories into a
genuine, philosophical understanding of the arts. While his aesthetic
is not without problems of its own, these prove instructive for consid-
ering the problems posed by the arts in the modern world.
The argument in these pages, therefore, is not aimed at an exclu-
sively Hegelian audience. Although it will be of interest to scholars of
Hegel, the hope is that what it has to say will also be of interest to
readers concerned with broader aesthetic questions. Whether I suc-
ceed in addressing what is of fashionable concern at the moment, the
issues of the ethical nature of the particular arts and the role of tradi-
tion are serious and will not disappear. The tendency among philoso-
phers to celebrate modernism and now postmodernism has worked to
foreclose debate about fundamental aesthetic issues. I argue here
that there are good reasons to see Hegel as pointing the way to a valid
critique of these movements that are largely uncriticized in the aca-
demic community.
vii
viii Preface
This book was undertaken out of a long effort to understand
Hegel’s aesthetic within the context of his larger philosophical sys-
tem, and out of a sense of the need to rearticulate an aesthetic that
would explain the legitimacy of the inherited artistic traditions of
Western culture. Hence I have explored some of the topics in this
book already in articles and essays. Permission to use them has been
graciously granted in the following cases:
“The Sounds of the Ideal: Hegel’s Aesthetic of Music,” The Owl of
Minerva 26 (1994): 47–58, appearing in chapter 5; “Beauty,
Ornament, and Style: The Problem of Classical Architecture in
Hegel’s Aesthetics,” The Owl of Minerva 30 (1999): 211–35, appear-
ing in chapter 7; and “Hegel’s Aesthetic and the Possibility of Art
Criticism,” a paper read at the 1996 meeting of the Hegel Society of
America, published in Hegel and Aesthetics, ed. William Maker
(Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000), 31–43, part of
which appears here in chapter 3. Quotations from Aesthetics: Lectures
on Fine Art, by G. W. F. Hegel and translated by T. M. Knox are
reprinted by permission of Oxford University Press © 1975 Oxford
University Press. I gratefully acknowledge this permission as crucial
to the analysis and critique of Hegel’s aesthetics. All quotations from
theAestheticsare from Knox’s translation unless otherwise noted.
I would like to thank Professor William Desmond, editor of the
SUNY series in Hegelian Studies, for his encouragement to pursue
this project. I also thank Kettering University for its generous support
of a sabbatical to make this book possible. Finally, I want to thank my
wife, Linda, for reading the manuscript with an eye both for typo-
graphical errors and for nonsense masquerading as philosophy.
Abbreviations
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English translations follow the German editions of Hegel’s works. All
quotations are from the English editions unless otherwise noted in
the text.
Enz.1–3 Enzyklopädie der philosophischen Wissenschaften im
Grundrissen (1830), Sämtliche Werke, vols. 8–10. Edited by
E. Moldenhauer and K. Michel (Frankfurt am Main:
Suhrkamp, 1970).
EL The Encyclopaedia Logic. Translated by T. F. Geraets, W. A.
Suchting, and H. S. Harris (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett,
1991).
PM Philosophy of Mind: Part Three of the Encyclopaedia of the
Philosophical Sciences (1830). Translated by William
Wallace and A.V. Miller (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971).
VÄ1–3 Vorlesungen über die Ästhetik, Sämtliche Werke, vols.
13–15. Edited by Moldenhauer and Michel (1970).
A1–2 Aesthetics: Lectures on the Fine Arts. Translated by T. M.
Knox. 2 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975). Pagination is
continuous; vol. 2 begins with p. 613.
GPR Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts oder Naturrecht und
Staatswissenschaft im Grundrisse, Sämtliche Werke, vol.7.
Edited by Moldenhauer and Michel (1970).
PR Philosophy of Right. Translated by T. M. Knox (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1952).
VPG Vorlesungen über die Philosophie der Geschichte, Sämtliche
Werke, vol.12. Edited by Moldenhauer and Michel (1970).
PH The Philosophy of History. Translated by J. Sibree (New York:
Dover, 1956).
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