Between Transcendence and Historicism
The Ethical Nature of the Arts in Hegelian Aesthetics
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Argues that the concept of the ethical is central to Hegel’s philosophy of art.
Description
Between Transcendence and Historicism explores Hegel's aesthetics within the larger context of the tradition of theoretical reflection to emphasize its unique ability to account for traditional artistic practice. Arguing that the concept of the ethical is central to Hegel's philosophy of art, Brian K. Etter examines the poverty of modernist aesthetic theories in contrast to the affirmation by Hegel of the necessity of art. He focuses on the individual arts in greater detail than is normally done for Hegel's aesthetics, and considers how the dual constitution of the ethical nature of art can be justified, both within Hegel's own philosophical system and in terms of its relevance to the dilemmas of modern social life. Etter concludes that the arts have a responsibility to represent the goodness of existence, the ideal, and the ethical life in dignifying the metaxological realm through their beauty.
Brian K. Etter (1954–2005) was Associate Professor in Humanities at Kettering University and the author of From Classicism to Modernism: Western Musical Culture and the Metaphysics of Order.