Hegel (Routledge Philosophers) Frederick Beiser

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.Art had nowdegenerated into little more than self-expression, and it assumed asmany different forms as there are individuals to express themselves.If, however, art were only self-expression, then it had ceased to playa role in culture or history.To be sure, art was not dead, and itwould continue as long as artists continued to express themselves.But the crucial question is whether art is still important, whether ithad any significance beyond individual self-expression.And hereHegel s answer was a decisive No.Hence Hegel s theory of the obsolescence of art ultimately restedupon his diagnosis of the alienation endemic to modern politicsand culture.As such his theory was independent of his classicism,and indeed his belief in the enduring vitality of Christianity.Thefundamental challenge facing art in the modern world was thesame as that confronting the state: the powerful alienating force ofthe right of subjectivity.Just as that right had separated the indi-vidual from the state, so it did the same to the artist and the cultureof his age.The source of the problem was irremovable, since theright of subjectivity was fundamental to and characteristic of themodern world.One might ask: Why did Hegel not think there could be a recon-ciliation between the modern artist and his age, just as there couldbe one for the modern individual and the state? Why not a306 Hegelnew higher synthesis, where the artist expresses the fundamentalbeliefs and values of his culture on a higher level? But it is just inraising this question that we can see the deeper reasons for Hegel spessimism about art.For he had always insisted that the reconcili-ation of the modern individual with society and state could takeplace only on the level of reflection.The structure of modern soci-ety and the state would have to satisfy the demands of criticalrationality; and it was just these demands that could not be satisfiedby art.Art appealed to the senses and feeling, not to a detachedcritical reason.What the modern individual ultimately needed wasan explanation, a reason, not an allegory, a novel or a play.EPILOGUE: The Rise and Fall of the Hegelian SchoolHegel s famous dictum in the preface to the Philosophy of Right thatevery philosophy is the self-awareness of its age is, of course, inten-tionally self-reflexive, applying to his own philosophy.With thisdictum Hegel confessed that his own philosophy was really littlemore than the self-awareness of his age, the articulation of its high-est ideals and aspirations.His age was that of the Prussian ReformMovement, which had dominated Prussian political life during thereign of Friedrich Wilhelm III from 1797 to 1840.Although manyof its ideals were far from reality, and although hopes for reformwere disappointed time and again in the 1820s and 1830s, thesehopes and ideals were at least alive in the minds and hearts of theyoung.Throughout these decades they fervently hoped that theirmonarch would finally deliver on his promises for reform.As longas that hope remained, the Hegelian philosophy could claim torepresent its age, at least in aspiration if not in reality.Thus Hegel s philosophy reigned supreme in Prussia for most ofthe Reform era, chiefly from 1818 to 1840.Its rise to prominencebegan in 1818 with Hegel s appointment to the University ofBerlin.Hegel and his disciples received strong official backing fromthe Prussian Ministry of Culture, especially from two powerful min-isters, Baron von Altenstein and Johannes Schulze.They supportedHegel s philosophy largely because they saw it as the medium tosupport their own reformist views against reactionary court circles.In 1827 Hegel s students began to organize themselves, formingtheir own society, the Berliner kritische Association, and editing a308 Hegelcommon journal, Jahrb�cher f�r wissenschaftliche Kritik.When Hegel diedin 1831, a group of his most intimate students prepared a completeedition of his works.What did these students see in Hegel s philosophy? Why didthey regard themselves as Hegelians? Almost all of Hegel s earlydisciples saw his philosophy as the rationalization of the PrussianReform Movement, whose ideals they shared.For the most part,1they viewed themselves as loyal Prussians, not out of any sense ofunconditional obedience, but because they were confident that thePrussian state would eventually realize some of the main ideals ofthe Revolution through gradual reform.They were proud of thepolitical traditions of the Prussian state, which seemed to embodyall the progressive trends of the Reformation and Aufkl�rung.2 LikeHegel, most of the young Hegelians believed in the virtues of con-stitutional monarchy and the necessity of reform from above.3 Theradicalization of the Hegelian movement would not begin untilafter the accession of Friedrich Wilhelm IV and the 1840s.Foralmost all the Hegelians before 1840, however, Hegel s philosophyrepresented the genuine via media between reaction and revolution [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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