1B: Aesthetic Philosophy & Romanticism
- Stephen Houlgate, “Introduction: An Overview of Hegel’s Aesthetics” in Hegel and the Arts, ed. Stephen Houlgate (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2007), xi – xxviii.
- Key Themes
- Art is an expression of human being and human consciousness, what Hegel calls “Spirit” (Geist);
- History (as represented by cultural artifacts, in particular) demonstrates a constant evolution in humanity;
- Truth cannot be understood in concepts alone, but must be made tangible, “given sensuous expression” (p xv);
- Human freedom is beauty (the sublime is a valid artistic expression).
- Key Themes
- excerpt from: Iain Boyd White, “Sublime” in The Romantic Spirit in German Art 1790-1990, eds. Keith Hartley, Henry Meyric Hughes, Peter-Klaus Schuster, and William Vaughan (London: Thames & Hudson, 1994), 138 – 141.
- Key Themes:
- Sublime as a signature — even central — element to German painting from 1800 to the present;
- Sublime contrasted beautiful (which is more tangible);
- Imaginative, mysterious, awe-inspiring and also terrifying and apocalyptic;
- Fear turns to pleasure;
- Nationalism: wild, untamed nature of the North as opposed to the “measured delight of the Mediterranean south.”
- Key Themes:
