Constitutionalism, politics and the common life

Terry Pinkard

pp. 163-186

in: Tristram Engelhardt, Terry Pinkard (eds), Hegel reconsidered, Berlin, Springer, 1994

Abstract

Apparently late in his life, Hegel came to the conclusion that the possibilities of modern art were limited. "Art is for us a thing of the past", he noted in his 1828 lectures on Aesthetics, just three years before his death." By that he seems to have meant two things. First, art could no longer play the central role it once did; it would "for us", members of pluralist constitutional states, henceforth be an important but no longer central cultural activity. Second, the form of life of our modern society is such that the category of the beautiful is inapplicable to the basic structure of that society, which is a constitutionalist state committed to the rule of law. Although we can regret this, we must also acknowledge the rational superiority of constitutionalist societies to their alternatives. Markets and the rule of law have much to recommend them, even if they can make no claims to being aesthetically pleasing.

Cited authors

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich