Reading Guide for Introduction to Lectures on the Fine Arts by G. W. F.

Hegel
Hegel is one of the most notoriously difficult writers in the Western philosophical canon.
Fortunately for us, the text we are reading is considered one of Hegels most accessible. Even still,
I believe that the texts complex rhetorical structure makes comprehending the texts argument
unnecessarily difficult. With that in mind, I offer the following less as a summary than as a road
map. My hope is that you will be able to make sense of Hegels Introduction to his Lectures on
Fine Arts if you read the text according to the breakdown I provide instead of as a single steady
stream of thought.
Note: Hegel uses the words science and scientific in a way that bother the modern readers ear.
We balk at the notion of a science of art as well as at the notion of a philosophical science. It might
help, then, to keep in mind that Hegel translates scientificity loosely as rationality. When Hegel
speaks of the possibility of a science of art, try reading him as speaking of the possibility of rational
discussion, or knowledge, about art.
Pages 4-5: Explanation of preference for philosophy of art over aesthetics; explanation of
philosophy of art and its object
Next, Hegel considers two arguments against the very possibility of scientific philosophy of art.
Pages 6-7 (1): The first objection is that art is unworthy of rational investigation. Art has no
real use; art is superfluous, a luxury. Additionally, art, confined to the realm of appearance,
is ultimately a kind of illusionor so the argument goes.
Pages 8-9 (2): The second objection is that rational (scientific) investigation of art is
impossible. This objection maintains that comprehending art makes use of a different
faculty than the intellect. This objection also maintains that the freedom of art implies that
it is outside the scope of science, which deals with what is necessary, rule-governed,
whereas it seems that arbitrariness and lawlessness seem to be specially at home in the
artworld.
Although Hegel believes that these two arguments contain a grain of truth (9), he dismisses both of
them.
Pages 10-15 (a): Against those who say that art is unworthy of rational investigation, Hegel
insists that art is not too low to think about. Along with religion and philosophy, art is one
of the ways in which humans can come to know what Hegel calls the Absolute. What he
means by this, put most simply, is that art can express our most profound beliefs about the
universe as a whole. However, art is distinct from religion and philosophy, Hegel says, in
expressing these deeply held convictions in a sensible form rather than in the mythological
or dogmatic form of religion or the thoroughly rational, discursive form of philosophy (1011). Hegel acknowledges that art deals with appearances, but he disagrees with those who
say that this makes art unworthy of study; for appearance is a part of reality (11). Besides,

what appears in art is not simply what appears in everyday life. The artist carefully selects
his or her subject and depicts it so that a deep truth is conveyed by it. What appears in art
is of a higher value than the appearances of ordinary existence (12-13).
Pages 13-15: In what may seem to be a non-sequitur, Hegel next discusses the limits of art
as a mode of access to the Absolute and presents his famous end of art thesis.
Pages 15-18 (b): Hegel also protests against those who say that art lies beyond the reach of
science. Hegel argues that philosophical thought is entwined with scientific thought. More
importantly, and more problematically, Hegel argues that art can be rationally
comprehended because art is a product of the mind, and the mind, Hegel says, can always
understand itself. The gist of the argument seems to be that in all of the minds activities it
operates according to concepts; the mind can always understand its own activities;
therefore, art, since it is one of the minds activities, can be grasped conceptuallywhich is
to say, rationally, scientifically (17). Hegel also states that art is not quite as free as it may
seem: The higher spiritual function of art limits both the objects and the methods of art
and keeps it from running amok in a land of fantasy (18).
In the next section, Hegel considers two contrasting ways of approaching the philosophy of art.
Pages 19-20 (a):