Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (Author), Michael Inwood (Editor, Introduction), Bernard Bosanquet (Translator)

Book Description

Series: Penguin Classics | Publication Date: January 4, 2004

No philosopher has held a higher opinion of art than Hegel, yet nor was any so profoundly pessimistic about its prospects despite living in the German golden age of Goethe, Mozart and Schiller. For if the artists of classical Greece could find the perfect fusion of content and form, modernity faced complicating and ultimately disabling questions. Christianity, with its code of unworldliness, had compromised the immediacy of man's relationship with reality, and ironic detachment had alienated him from his deepest feelings. Hegel's "Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics" were delivered in Berlin in the 1820s and stand today as a passionately argued work that challenged the ability of art to respond to the modern world.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German

About the Author

Hegel (1770-1831) is one of hte most important of modern philosophers, due to his relation to Marx and the support his philosophy seemed to offer to theories of nationalism and social democracy, and his impact on a range of humanities. He is best known for The Phenomenology of Spirit, The Science of Logic, The Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences, and The Philosophy of Right, as well as his lectures, which were published posthumously by his friends. Bernard Bosanquet was a Fellow of University College, Oxford teaching philosophy and ancient history. From 1903 to 1908 he held the chair of moral philosophy at St Andrews. He died in 1923.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (January 4, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 014043335X
• ISBN-13: 978-0140433357
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #166,799 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hegel sees art as cultural phenomena that has deep significance for understanding reality, December 25, 2008

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Michael A Neulander "Political Philosophy" (VA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

I read this book for a graduate seminar on the philosophy of art. Bernard Bosanquet's book "Introductory Lectures of Aesthetics" is a great way to learn about G. W. F. Hegel's ideas on how art, religion, and philosophy interact and should not be seen as sharp divisions of thought.

It is important to note that the Germans look on art as more than art. They look on art as cultural phenomena that has deep significance for understanding reality and not just to study experiences and such. Hegel is reacting to the modern model of aesthetics and the expression theory of Kant. Hegel looks on art as a fundamental development of the "spirit" spirit meaning thought culture and so on. Hegel had this relation between art, religion, and philosophy by religion he means a more developed religion that has more of an element of thought in it and how it talks about the nature of the world and the creation and purpose of the world. However, art in terms of poetry and the visual arts Hegel thinks is the first form that spirit takes as a sensuous form. The idea of a sensuous medium seems to be a necessary condition, in that art is fashioned in its own kind of material into a product that communicates something. Hegel says forms of art in history come before developed systems like religion and philosophy. By that, he means the human spirit is evolving and that the first forms indicate the representing of ideas and spiritual notions of sensuous forms. He does not at all hold to the idea that art is simply the expressions of subjective faculties. Hegel thinks of art as a manifestation of elements of reality, but in an early form. This is Hegel's developmental theory that spirit progresses. Organized religion expands to getting into philosophy that gets much closer to the truth by being more conceptual and theoretical.

The important influence Hegel had is on the overall theory of Greek tragedy as an avenue to thought and not just tragedy. For example, throughout my years of studying the play "Antigone," I have been impressed by learning the fact that between Aristotle and Freud critics, philosophers and scholars have written so much about the play. There can be no doubt this is due to the fact as I have discovered "Antigone" was so successful at providing a lens for one to "see," and thus understand the essence of human life with all its tragic pitfalls. In particular, Hegel spent a considerable amount of time gleaning lessons from "Antigone" that have helped me to use it as a lens to "see" more clearly how humans have to question and ultimately choose between competing moral choices.

According to Hegel's account of Greek tragedy, Hegel did not view Greek tragedy as a collision between good and evil, but between competing goods. In addition, Hegel proposes in his interpretation of Greek tragedy, that the sufferings of the tragic hero are merely the means of reconciling the opposing moral goods--between two entirely ethical worlds that clash and cannot come together. Both Antigone and Creon have a moral vision or belief that they are destined to follow, which is the one-sidedness of their moral vision that clashes with the one-sidedness of the other character's moral vision. Both sides of contradiction are justified. Hegel finds that it is the conflict of irreconcilable yet justifiable moral worlds that will lead to the tragic death of the hero in Greek tragedy. This is an important point that Hegel makes, because I have found throughout my life that like Antigone, rarely am I given the opportunity to choose between good and evil. Usually I have been faced with the tougher moral choice of having to choose between moral goods. This is a great book that explores Hegel's philosophical writings, which opens up the world disclosiveness of Greek tragedy and the lessons they can still teach us today.

I recommend this work for anyone interested in philosophy, philosophy of art, Greek culture, and Greek tragedy.

28 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hegel, April 20, 2002

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GB - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

This book presents the text with a great introduction and a superb appendix, thus making the book half text and half commentary ... perfect for the student. this text might be a nice way to slide into Hegel. Plus, Penguin Books smell so nice.