| Hegel's philosophy of art, though radical in many ways, does not in fact entail some of the highly counterintuitive conclusions for which it is most notorious. Hegel's aesthetic philosophy contends that the significance of the artwork is conceptually determinable, albeit only with reference to world-history. Although his theory manages to grant objectivity and determinability to judgments about art, it cannot do so without confronting three important questions concerning artistic significance: 1) What can the artist know about the significance of her own work, and how does the knowledge of the artist differ from that of the philosopher? 2) In what sense is the artist creatively free, and in what sense is her activity determined by her context? 3) What, if any, is the Modern or contemporary significance of art, and does Hegel's theory announce the "death" of art? After introducing Hegel's philosophy of art by contrasting it with earlier aesthetic theories, I articulate an interpretive framework for Hegel's aesthetic theory that I then advance by applying it to each of these three questions.;KEYWORDS: Hegel, Kant, Aesthetics, Idealism, Art. |
