Hegel's concept of beauty

The book "Phenomenology of Spirit" by the German philosopher Hegel can be considered one of the most important books that discussed the problem of art and aesthetics, and includes chapters on the religion of ancient Greek art. Hegel's philosophy is divided into logic, philosophy of nature and philosophy of spirit. For the branches of subjective spirit, objective spirit and absolute spirit, Hegel's philosophy of art forms the first sections of the philosophy of absolute spirit.

From this it follows that Hegel was concerned with Greek art as the basis of aesthetics, and some wondered about his interest in it, about the possibility of limiting aesthetics to Greek art only. Will it end in the modern era as an extension of his thesis at the end of philosophy? Answering such questions is difficult, because Hegel's texts on the philosophy of art and aesthetics are short and rare.

The status of art and beauty in Hegel

Art is part of the Hegelian philosophical system, and it has a place because it gives prominence and clarity to the soul, which helps to understand it, and although Hegel's philosophy is purely idealistic and metaphysical, he saw those innovative artistic materials, whether visual or sound . . It is a sensual expression of the free spirit, that is, of beauty. Thus, Hegel concludes, the aim of all art is to create beautiful subjects and objects, as an expression of freedom.

Therefore, art is not an imitation of reality, as it was in Greek philosophy, but a release of freedom, which allows a person to know the truth. It turns out that beauty is an idea that exists only in the mind that is corrupted by external quotes, but it is still a manifestation of the absolute spirit, because beauty is the absolute.

Hegel's definition of natural beauty

Natural beauty, according to Hegel, is an abstract beauty that does not exist to be realized or be beautiful, but rather exists for man as a perceiving subject. Due to the phenomenon of beauty, natural beauty is beautiful only for others, that is, for us, for the consciousness that perceives beauty.

Hegel's laws of beauty

Beauty, according to Hegel, is governed by a set of laws, the most important of which are:

Regularity: It is the external equality that gives the impression of external unity, but this unity is distinguished by its distance from mental understanding, because the mind in this principle does not perceive anything other than symmetry in kind.

Symmetry: Symmetry is not different from regularity, and symmetry is when one shape alternates with another and iterates according to the process that governs it.

Laws of subordination: They are the general and abstract laws that govern the quantity, the size and others.

Coherence: that results from the relationship between the qualitative differences, and thus the conflicts and differences between the constitutive elements of the work of art disappear so that it appears as an integrated unit.