Concepts of Art and the Ideal in Hegel’s Aesthetics in Light of New Sources

Abstract

This paper analyzes two key concepts of Hegel’s aesthetics: the concept of art and the concept of
the ideal, or the idea of beauty. A distinctive feature of this text is the primary sources chosen for the
analysis. This is one of the first attempts in the Russian history of philosophy to examine Hegel’s
idea about art and its purpose, as well as his concept of the ideal in the art, based on Hegel’s lectures
on aesthetics recently published in Germany. The student notes of the lectures he read in 1823 and
1826 in Berlin expand our understanding of his philosophy of art. In addition, the author gives a
brief history of publication of Hegel’s lectures on aesthetics and describes the challenges faced by
contemporary researchers of Hegel’s philosophy of art.