Aesthetics Review 1 Hegel is a master of German classical philosophy and aesthetics. His aesthetics are sorted out by his students according to his lecture records and teaching syllabus at Heidelberg University, and it is also a concentrated expression of his artistic philosophy.
There are two important viewpoints in the first volume of Aesthetics: "Beauty is the perceptual manifestation of ideas" and "Artistic beauty is higher than natural beauty". I want to talk about my views from these two angles.
First of all, Hegel defined beauty as "beauty is the perceptual manifestation of ideas". Obviously, the concept here is not exactly the same as that of Socrates and Plato. In ancient Greek philosophy, the so-called idea refers to people's cognition of things, which is based on people's correct understanding of things. In Hegel's philosophical system, there are concepts of "absolute spirit" and "absolute idea". In his view, beauty comes from "absolute concept", which makes beauty objective. The development of "absolute concept" is inevitable, and so is the emergence and development of beauty.
Marxism holds that the essence of the so-called "absolute idea" is objective idealism, which recognizes the existence of an absolute law similar to God and surpassing human cognition, and the aesthetic pleasure formed by human cognitive feelings is "the perceptual expression of ideas", that is, beauty.
Comparing Chernyshevski's "beauty is life", ancient Greece's "truth, goodness and beauty" and China's traditional Confucianism's "beauty is benevolence", we can find that Hegel no longer refines beauty into a product of life higher than life with the help of the concept of ethics.
Only by separating the source of aesthetic feeling from life can we analyze the true essence of beauty without pollution. Otherwise, when we look at Russian aesthetics, we will involuntarily associate beauty with life, and simply think that what conforms to the lifestyle is beauty, and vice versa. If we look at ancient Greek philosophy and Confucian philosophy, we will arbitrarily put the ethical and moral judgments of "goodness" and "benevolence" above "beauty itself" and alienate an aesthetic judgment into a moral judgment.
It is when Hegel realizes this danger that he will separate beauty from what is objectively cognizable, thus creating a kind of aesthetic feeling that transcends all kinds of ethical and cognitive limitations. Studying "beauty itself" in this way can naturally be free from interference and pollution, but it will obviously make the study of beauty fall into a misunderstanding.
As mentioned above, Hegel believes that beauty comes from "absolute idea", so beauty naturally exists and never dies. The resulting aesthetic definition actually involves the key topic of "beauty itself", that is, "is beauty an objective existence or a subjective feeling". Hegel obviously chose to define beauty as an absolute objective truth-an eternal law, which is manifested through human sensibility.
It is not difficult to find that Hegel actually defines beauty as the law of beauty, and once beauty is defined as the absolute law, it is impossible for us to fully and correctly express what beauty is because of the limitation of cognitive ability.
For example, what Plato did in his Great Hippocampus, no matter how we interpret beauty, is a flawed discussion. Therefore, Plato can infer that "beauty is nothingness" step by step through numerous questions in the hippocampus, but studying Plato's life and thinking about the history of western philosophy for thousands of years can't get the answer of "what is the essence of beauty".
Throughout Hegel's aesthetics, we can also find that there is a fundamental contradiction between Hegel's exposition of the concept of "beauty itself" and his later exposition of the essence of beauty.
The most important premise for Hegel to judge that "beauty is the perceptual manifestation of ideas" is that Hegel thinks that beauty is absolute, that is to say, Hegel thinks that beauty has objective reality in ontology, which is also one of the most important discussions in the history of world aesthetics-"Is beauty subjective or objective?"
However, when it comes to this judgment, we can find that Hegel itself is contradictory. On the one hand, he thinks that beauty is an absolute law that is divorced from people's judgment ability, dominated by "absolute concept" and transcends all subjective judgments, but on the other hand, he admits that there are two different kinds of beauty in this world, one is artistic beauty created by human beings, and the other is natural beauty.
Because we find that if we understand it according to Hegel's "absolute spirit", we should find the essence of * * * in all beautiful things, just like the "knowledge of things" in Song and Ming Neo-Confucianism. As long as we keep looking for the * * * phase of things and constantly deleting and selecting them, in the end we will find that all beautiful things have the same * * * essence, and that is ".
However, the most dangerous thing about this mode of thinking is that the so-called "beauty itself" is an "absolute spirit" and an "absolute idea" above human cognitive ability, which means that we can only get closer to the cognition of "beauty itself" in any case, but never reach the other side of truth. This is the source of the terrible agnosticism in epistemology. Just as Hume can deny the existence of causality, this way of understanding beauty will inevitably lead to the nihilistic cognitive concept that "beauty cannot be recognized" or "the essence of beauty does not exist". As an aesthetic book, it is obviously dangerous to bury the original intention of such an aesthetic study from the beginning.
Secondly, an important viewpoint put forward by Hegel's aesthetics is that "artistic beauty is higher than natural beauty". Here, Hegel believes that artistic beauty is higher than natural beauty because it is created and recognized by human beings, with the value of human emotions and cognitive activities. Hegel even put forward the view that natural beauty and "artistic beauty" are not of equal value at the beginning.
However, only from Hegel's own exposition of "beauty itself" can we find that his excessive praise of artistic beauty and excessive condemnation of natural beauty have no rational value.
Starting from Hegel's own understanding. As mentioned above, Hegel believes that the essence of beauty is "the perceptual manifestation of ideas". This sentence actually shows that no matter what kind of beauty phenomenon is studied or what kind of aesthetic feeling is explained, it is based on people's cognitive ability. Therefore, from the perspective of people's cognitive ability, when people know works of art and nature, they actually have the same status, that is, who can make people get "spiritual pleasure" (Kant's judgment
In other words, from the perspective of being recognized, the so-called artistic beauty and natural beauty are actually on the same starting line. Different works of art and different natural beauty are also limited to people's perception of beauty, so works of art can be unique and naturally achieve "great beauty in heaven and earth."
Therefore, we can find that Hegel's only valid argument that "artistic beauty is higher than natural beauty" is that "artistic beauty" comes from human creation and development, while natural beauty lacks artificial strength and color.
It sounds like such a thing. After careful scrutiny, it can be found that Hegel himself believes that the essence of beauty is "the manifestation of ideas", and the so-called essence of beauty itself is an objective and unchangeable law. According to Hegel's own concept, it is obvious that natural beauty will be closer to the essential law of beauty than artistic beauty created by human beings, thus conforming to the judgment of beauty.
However, when judging "what is more beautiful", Hegel changed a comparison standard, no longer judging from the essence of beauty, but using the perspective of what can make people get "aesthetic pleasure", which obviously contradicts the former's transcendental judgment on "beauty itself".
But even if we take a step back and look at the question of "what is beauty" from people's understanding and aesthetic pleasure, we still find that Hegel's judgment is not valid. Because Hegel's view is actually very simple, that artistic beauty is created by people, so artistic beauty is closer to people's aesthetics.
First of all, the originality of art is not necessarily aesthetic feeling. Taking Jia Pingwa's Ugly Times as an example, we will find that artists do not necessarily judge by aesthetics when creating, and judging by ugliness is also an important manifestation of artistic judgment.
To say the least, we understand that Hegel's era may not have artistic creation with the theme of appreciating ugliness. Let's compare natural beauty with artistic beauty. We can find that human beings can't escape the influence of natural beauty when they are looking for artistic beauty.
For example, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is wonderful because he did a lot of analysis and research on human anatomy in the early stage, and the human painting that did not conform to the natural laws and perspective laws of the human body was submerged in the torrent of history as early as the Enlightenment. For example, the proportion of the golden section itself comes from the inherent law of nature, so from a certain point of view, the so-called artistic beauty, its creative law itself comes from the aesthetic law of nature.
So we can find that, from a certain point of view, natural beauty can be said to be the mother of artistic beauty and the source of nutrition. Hegel's criticism and praise of natural beauty, on the one hand, contradicts his own understanding of aesthetic ontology, on the other hand, reflects his cognitive limitations of natural beauty.
Generally speaking, Hegel's aesthetics has explored the great historical grand plan of aesthetic development from the macro perspective of aesthetic history and aesthetic geography, and also initiated the study of aesthetic system, but the analysis of aesthetic essence is obviously not in place and lacking.
Aesthetic Reflection 2 Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831), a German objective idealist philosopher, was deeply influenced by the works of Plato, Homer and Socrates Aristotle, and devoted his life to thinking and writing.
Hegel divided the philosophy of human art into three types with a progressive view of history, from the early prehistoric art to the human art he lived in in the early19th century, including poetry, music, painting, sculpture and architecture. Symbolic art is the subject with no clear definition of the idea to be expressed, while classical art is developed from symbolic art, which is the most perfect art with completely clear subject concept. Romantic art pays more attention to the noble soul itself on the classical level. Hegel didn't write aesthetics himself, he just taught the course at the university forum. His former students collected the lecture notes and edited them into Aesthetic Lecture Notes.
First, what is aesthetics?
The human spirit contains divinity, which is what artists pursue. The beauty of artistic works is the beauty of divinity. Structural anthropologists Levi and Strauss said: "The artist's work may be the only correct knowledge of mankind." Aesthetics, as a discipline, was originally a branch of philosophy. In Greek, "Christotik" means "beauty". What is art? What does art want to achieve? Art and interpersonal relationships? How to analyze works of art? Therefore, we also call the subject of aesthetics "philosophy of art".
Works of art show people's spiritual value, which grasps the purport of time, personal character, action and the transformation to achieve this goal. It highlights the transformation from the original real world to a more humane world. The world becomes purer and more vivid in art, and everything in the mind is higher than nature. Art can express sacred ideals, which nature cannot do.
If the things created from the brain and the things produced and formed from nature all contain the glory of God, then the glory of God is higher in the former than in the latter. God is the soul, and only in man can sacred freedom be flexible. Man's art is that man imitates the nature created by God.
Second, the purpose of art.
What is the purpose of people in creating art? There are three general opinions: the theory of imitating nature, the theory of arousing emotions and the theory of ideal omnipotence.
Imitation is copying completely according to the original natural shape, which is a kind of reproduction. Art is always limited by the use of materials and can only provide a realistic form in a certain sense. Art can never compete with nature by pure imitation. The fun of imitation is always limited. For people, the pleasure gained from what they create is more suitable for their identity. In this sense, the invention value of every tiny technological product is higher than imitation. The theory of "passion" emphasizes that the function of art lies in awakening. Anything that can make people feel or shock, any idea and concept that can meet people's emotional needs can always arouse people's deepest potential power, which is the goal of art arousing function. All the emotional stimulation, the mind's awareness of every life content, and the inner excitement caused by a foreign object that is only an illusion are all great powers unique to art. In the theory of "ideal and universal power", there is often such a situation: when an artist feels pain in his heart, he begins artistic behavior, expresses it with images or images, and turns the pain into an artistic image. This is the comfort in tears. Art can also give people moral lessons. Horace said: "Poets give people guidance and entertainment." The higher the artistic requirements, the more it is necessary to adopt moral content. Morality is also an artistic standard. Art is the earliest teacher of all ethnic groups.
Third, the content determines the form.
Without content, there is no art, and form is the container of content. The defects of artistic works are not always immature skills, but the defects of form always stem from the defects of content. The more beautiful a work of art is, the more profound and true its content and thought are. In works of art, the transformation of nature is not the artist's technical strangeness and inexperience, but the artist's intention, which is determined by the content and requirements in the artist's consciousness.
The real duty of art is to help people realize the highest purport of the mind. Beautiful art cannot be shaken in the unrestrained field of imagination, because the purport of the mind determines the basis of artistic content, although the form and shape can be ever-changing.
A work of art is technically perfect, but it can't be said to be perfect art. Perfect art is a combination of thought and expression. Not only are there ideas, but the images that express them are also true and perfect, and the highest works of art include both. As an idea, the artist must find a concrete image, and the image is the bridge to show the idea. The concrete concept itself is the process of making itself appear as a free image. Only real concrete ideas can produce real images, and the coincidence of these two aspects is the ideal art.
Fourth, the types of art.
Art expresses ideas. In order to realize various ideas, human beings have developed various art types, which are divided into symbolic art, classical art and romantic art.
Ideas are concrete unity. Only through the extension and reconciliation of various special aspects of ideas can we enter the artistic consciousness. Due to this development, artistic beauty has a special stage and type. In the primitive stage of art, symbolic art is mainly represented by oriental art; Classical art represents the mature stage of artistic development, mainly Greek art.
These three types of art are different relations between content and image, and different ways to realize ideas. In the initial stage, the concept itself is still uncertain and unclear, and the image taken by the abstract concept is perceptual material outside the natural form of the concept itself, that is to say, perceptual material has the absolute upper hand. Natural materials still retain their original characteristics and have not changed much. This type is called symbolic art type. Classical art has achieved a high degree of unity in ideas and materials. The idea found the most suitable material for it, and it freely and appropriately blended into the material, which is a free and perfect coordination. Romantic art once again broke the perfection of concept and reality, canceled the inseparable unity of concept and material in classical art, and in order to express the soul more freely, concept withdrew from the coordination and unity of its external factors.
Verb (abbreviation for verb) symbolizes art.
The idea was not clear from the beginning, on the contrary. Because the idea itself does not have the personality required by the ideal, its abstraction and one-sidedness make the image appear bizarre and imperfect in appearance. It's just a distant attempt, a formal struggle and hope. The idea has not yet found a form that really suits him. This art is called symbolic art.
Ideas and perceptual materials don't quite match. A natural object is more like its original appearance and has not changed. It seems that the object is unwilling to assume the responsibility of expressing ideas and fulfill an obligation. In this case, ideas and objects form an abstract attribute relationship, such as using lions to symbolize strength.
Thought finds that they are not suitable, so it exaggerates the natural shapes and real phenomena into uncertain and asymmetrical things, in an attempt to improve the status of thought with sloppy, huge and magnificent images. The pantheism of the above situation in oriental primitive art is an obvious proof. Symbolic art ends in imperfection.
Sixth, classical art
Classical art, which deals with thoughts properly, finds a home where thoughts should be sent. Classical art is the first perfect art of mankind, and the ideal has found a realistic expression channel. Classical art is concrete and full of concepts. Only when the things in your mind are clear can you reach this stage. The idea is to find the best thing for you in nature, to show the spiritual things, and to think that only what goes through the mind can be successfully displayed in the senses.
In classical art, the appearance of human body shape can be regarded not only as matter, but also as the external existence form of mind, and it also has the existence of natural form.
Seven, romantic art.
Romantic art once again broke the perfect unity of ideal and reality. At a higher stage, it returns to the difference and opposition between idea and reality. Classical art reaches the highest level of beauty and tries its best to express the sensibility of art. The limitation of classical art lies in handing an infinite subject to a limited world.
Romantic art cancels the inseparable unity of classical art and surpasses classical art in content and expression. Romantic art retains the artistic form,