The Political Dimension in Hegel's Aesthetics

The Political Dimension in Hegel's Aesthetics

While Hegel’s Lectures on Fine Art (1818–29) have received much attention in recent scholarship, the question of how exactly art impacts political life remains open. How should we interpret Hegel's view of this matter, and how ought we to theorize the interaction between art and society in general? In Hegel’s system, the emergence of art is linked to historical processes of conflict, struggle, and contradiction, thereby expressing spirit's liberation beyond the confines of a specific historical situation. In world history (where art's absolute spirit comes to the fore), established forms of political life, institutions and traditional ways of thinking and acting appear fragile and debatable. As an ‘old’ form of socio-political life comes to an end, art is the first sensuous embodiment of this dissolution and the medium in which the transition to a new form of socio-political life manifests itself. Hegel’s theorem that in modern times art ‘has become a thing of the past’ and no longer fulfils ‘the highest need [Bestimmung] of human spirit’ (often referred to as art’s ‘end’) is therefore paradoxical: rather than simply stating the irrelevance of art for the present, it points to art as something that reflects on and expresses the current historical-political state in all its contradictions. 

The workshop aims to develop a fresh perspective on the intersection between aesthetics and politics in Hegel’s philosophy. It seeks to reconsider Hegel’s claim that art is absolute spirit’s initial form (before religion and philosophy) and its sensuous embodiment, and its critical potential in modern society. Speakers will address the issue of how we should read the paradoxical figure of art’s ‘end’, its possible emancipatory role, namely the question of how art not only articulates the predicament of our present society in a visible form, but may also actively participate in its actual transformation. 

Speakers: Rebecca Comay (Toronto), Peter Osborne (Kingston), Gregor Schäfer (London/Basel), Christoph Schuringa (Northwestern). 

This in-person workshop will take place at the University of London Senate House. 

All welcome; advance online registration essential. Registration: £10 (standard rate); £5 (students).

The workshop is organized by Cæcilie Varslev-Pedersen (University of Southampton) and Gregor Schäfer (Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies, University of London/University of Basel), and sponsored by The Mind Association.