Info Hegel (jan 1, 1770 – jan 1, 1770)
Description:
Hegel was a German philospher, his first book was called: 'The Phenomenology of Spirit'.
His definition of this Spirit he talks about, The Spirit = human consciousness; how we think about ourselves and the world, how they appear to us.
Human consciousness develops progressively, history is linear and art assists man in the development of the spirit.
Hegelian Dialectics:
How come it that we as a human progress/ get better --> because of dialectics:
1. At first, you have a thesis, then there is an antithesis to this thesis (a disagreement/tegenstelling). Those two 'fight' each other. From this fight, some sort of a conclusion emerges, one which is better than both of the previous arguments. This is called a 'synthesis'.
2. This synthesis becomes a thesis, and as a result there will be a antithesis again --> ''
3. This synthesis becomes a thesis again.
Coming back to ''Human consciousness develops progressively, history is linear and art assists man in the development of the spirit.'' The human spirit develops towards the absolute spirit, this happens in 3 stages which have a way in which art is usefull:
1. Subjective spirit: The person who perceives the world is stuck in his own subjectivity, he has no understanding/concepts of the world around him. (This spirit is linked to symbolic art, the form is bigger than the concept itself vb. Pyramid).
2. Objective spirit: People try to objectify human beings to get more understanding about the world around them and who they are themselves. (This spirit is linked to classical art).
3. Absolute spirit: People are able to think of themselves as a human being in the world. They can go back in to the world (to experience) and afterwards reflect about it. This way there is a dialect between rationalism and empirism. (This spirit is linked to romantic art vb. cross).
As soon as the absolute spirit is reached, the progress stops and art isn't needed anymore to develop. Therefore, 'art is dead' according to Hegel. By Hegel's time, art had already done everything that art could do. So unlike previous times, we don't need art anymore to develop the thinking about ourselves and our world.
Added to timeline:
Blok 1: De uitvinding van de kunst 1750-1850, Blok 2: The rise of the present (1850-1900) and Blok 3: The hunt for the future Blok 4: Het twistpunt van de tijd (1950-1990)
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