Hegel's Political Aesthetics: Art in Modern Society

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What is the role of art in modern society To what extent are the beautiful and the morally good intertwined Hegel's Political Aesthetics explores Hegels take on these ever-relevant philosophical questions and investigates three key themes: arts contribution to modern ethical life, the loss of arts authority in modern ethical life and ways of thinking beyond Hegels analysis of arts role in society. The aesthetic is explored through the lens of German Idealism from Kant to Hegel, ultimately placing ethics and morality at the forefront of this debate. The authors explore Hegels take on Kants conception by historicizing what it means to be responsible to others, which for Hegel means being free within the norms of society, within what he calls ethical life. As a set of concrete social arrangements designed for finite human beings, however, ethical life falls short of actualizing freedom absolutely. The themes in this volume are motivated by a central ambivalence in Hegels thinking about modernity. The question of freedom sits at the forefront of this text, alongside the relation between art and the spirit. This book will be of particular interest to philosophers of aesthetics, politics and ethics.

Reviews

Dedicated to exploring art in modern Western society, this excellent volume does indeed both instruct and delight: it instructs with lucid accounts of Hegels work on art and will surely delight those seeking a deeper understanding of Hegels aesthetic and its enduring relevance. * CHOICE *
This book ranges widely among Hegels historical, theoretical, and political pronouncements about art, uniting them beautifully under the innovative theme of political aesthetics. The essays are invigorating and fresh, showing how much Hegels synthetic approach to art can illuminate chronic dilemmas about art and its place in our political and moral lives. A wonderful contribution to new scholarship on Hegels philosophy of art. * Lydia Moland, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Colby College, USA *
Modern culture continues to be riven by the question of the meaning of the arts: are the arts bound by the demands of morality and the urgencies of political strife; or are the arts somehow autonomous, somehow posed in an aesthetic space with its own inner logic, historical trajectory, and normative demands In this splendid and always engaging collection of essays, each of the authors critically reflects on Hegels effort to demonstrate the always extra-aesthetic significance of the arts that are nonetheless possessed of a defining aesthetic meaning as sensuous particulars. The very best of these uniformly excellent essays are incisive additions to both our understanding of Hegel and contemporary cultural debates. Belongs on the shelf of every student of Hegel. * J. M. Bernstein, University Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, The New School for Social Research, USA *

Author Bio

Stefan Bird-Pollan is Associate Professor in Philosophy, Social Theory and International Film Studies, University of Kentucky, USA Vladimir Marchenkov is Professor of Aesthetics and Theory, Ohio University, USA