Art, Myth and Society in Hegel's Aesthetics

161 Pages·2009·0.83 MB·English

by  David James

Art, Myth and Society in
Hegel’s Aesthetics
Continuum Studies in Philosophy
Series Editor: James Fieser, University of Tennessee at Martin, USA
Continuum Studies in Philosophy is a major monograph series from Continuum.
The series features fi rst-class scholarly research monographs across the whole fi eld
of philosophy. Each work makes a major contribution to the fi eld of philosophical
research.
Aesthetic in Kant, James Kirwan
Analytic Philosophy: The History of an Illusion, Aaron Preston
Aquinas and the Ship of Theseus, Christopher Brown
Art, Myth and Society in Hegel’s Aesthetics, David James
Augustine and Roman Virtue, Brian Harding
The Challenge of Relativism, Patrick Phillips
Demands of Taste in Kant’s Aesthetics, Brent Kalar
Descartes and the Metaphysics of Human Nature, Justin Skirry
Descartes’ Theory of Ideas, David Clemenson
Dialectic of Romanticism, Peter Murphy and David Roberts
Hegel’s Philosophy of Language, Jim Vernon
Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, David James
Hegel’s Theory of Recognition, Sybol Cook Anderson
The History of Intentionality, Ryan Hickerson
Kierkegaard, Metaphysics and Political Theory, Alison Assiter
Kierkegaard’s Analysis of Radical Evil, David A. Roberts
Leibniz Re-interpreted, Lloyd Strickland
Metaphysics and the End of Philosophy, H.O. Mounce
Nietzsche and the Greeks, Dale Wilkerson
Origins of Analytic Philosophy, Delbert Reed
Philosophy of Miracles, David Corner
Platonism, Music and the Listener’s Share, Christopher Norris
Popper’s Theory of Science, Carlos Garcia
Role of God in Spinoza’s Metaphysics, Sherry Deveaux
Rousseau and the Ethics of Virtue, James Delaney
Rousseau’s Theory of Freedom, Matthew Simpson
St. Augustine and the Theory of Just War, John Mark Mattox
St. Augustine of Hippo, R. W. Dyson
Spinoza and the Stoics, Firmin DeBrabander
Spinoza’s Radical Cartesian Mind, Tammy Nyden-Bullock
Thomas Aquinas & John Duns Scotus, Alex Hall
Tolerance and the Ethical Life, Andrew Fiala
Art, Myth and Society in
Hegel’s Aesthetics
David James
Continuum International Publishing Group
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© David James 2009
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

EISBN: 978-1-4411-9816-7
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
James, David.
Art, myth, and society in Hegel’s aesthetics/David James.
p. cm. -- (Continuum studies in philosophy)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8264-2560-7 (HB)
ISBN-10: 0-8264-2560-7 (HB)
1. Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 1770-1831. 2. Aesthetics. 3. Religion--Philosophy.
4. History--Philosophy. I. Title. II. Series.
B2949.A4J36 2009
700.1--dc22 2008047933
Typeset by Newgen Imaging Systems Pvt Ltd, Chennai, India
Printed and bound in Great Britain by the MPG Books Group
To my son, Benjamin

Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Abbreviations of Works by Hegel x
Introduction 1
Chapter 1: The Symbolic Form of Art 7
1. Kant’s Theory of the Mathematical Sublime
and the ‘Boundlessness’ of the Symbolic Form of Art 7
2. The Classical Sublimity of Judaism 17
Chapter 2: The Classical Form of Art 25
1. The Original Epic 25
2. The Ideal 31
Chapter 3: The Transition to the Revealed Religion
and the Romantic Form of Art 40
1. The Revealed Religion 40
2. Representational Thought and the
Romantic Form of Art 44
3. Traces of Left Hegelianism in Hegel’s
Lectures on Aesthetics 55
4. The End of Mythology 61
Chapter 4: The Signifi cance of Kierkegaard’s Interpretation
of Don Giovanni in Relation to Hegel’s Theory of
the ‘End’ of Art 72
1. The ‘End’ of Art 72
2. The Opera as a Modern Art Form 79
viii Contents
Chapter 5: Hegel and Lukács on the Possibility of a Modern Epic 89
1. The Problem of the Modern Epic 89
2. The Modern Epic and History 96
3. Civil Society as the Background to the Modern Epic 101
Chapter 6: Myth and Society: A Common Theme in the
Thought of Hegel and Sorel 112
1. Sorel’s Myth of the General Strike 112
2. Myth and Modern Ethical Life 119
Notes 129
Bibliography 143
Index 146
Acknowledgements
This book was completed during a postdoctoral fellowship supported by
the South African National Research Foundation.
I would like to thank Annemarie Gethmann-Siefert for making copies of
some of the unpublished transcripts of Hegel’s lectures on aesthetics availa-
ble to me, and for organizing a discussion of this book at the FernUniver-
sität in Hagen. The comments made during this discussion were of great
benefi t when it came to revising the book for publication.
Chapter 4 is based on a previously published article, ‘The Signifi cance of
Kierkegaard’s Interpretation of Don Giovanni in Relation to Hegel’s Philos-
ophy of Art’, British Journal for the History of Philosophy 16(1) (2008).