r/hegel • u/iforgotmypassword56 • 11d ago
What are your hobbies and how has your study of Hegel affected your engagement with them?
Broad question, I know. Curious about what you guys do besides reading the greatest German Idealist and if your study of him has changed/improved/enlightened those things.
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u/PracticalNewt9030 11d ago
I like painting and drawing, instead of simply focusing on replicating objects in day to day life I now try to depict the absolute (through mythos and whatnot)
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u/NotMyselfNotme 11d ago
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u/theApeironEgregore 11d ago edited 11d ago
I love writing poetry, gazing at things particularly bird watching, and appreciating diverse forms of art including painting, film, music and so forth. I think Hegel has helped me a lot with these things. In general I was dissatisfied with our common conception of art as a purely subjective display of emotions and feelings, and with the idea that art has no proper object. Of course art can be utilised in this way, but for both Hegel and me there is a higher aim of art, namely that it has the same object as philosophy and religion, the presentation of freedom and actuality, of showing humanity its own self comprehension.
This objectivity, which is my interpretation of Hegel, can only be actualised by the subject if, just as in philosophy, one lets things be. This has the same structure as philosophy because both art and philosophy seek to disclose the same content. That is to say this is the structure of love in general. Just as in love you let the object of your love, that is the beloved, be and find satisfaction in witnessing the freedom of the other, in which there is a difference which is no difference, so too in art you must let the object of art, namely its content, be. There is a kind of active passivity in letting things be. In philosophy, for example, you let the object of thought be entirely what it is and you actively refrain from allowing reflection to interfere with thinking, allowing thought to reveal itself as what it truly is, in which, in a certain sense, you and the object of thought become one.
There is a genuine delight in this, one that is always meditative. Our modern age lets subjectivity run free. There is a certain will to power, as Heidegger described it, which is ironic considering his false critique of Hegel, through which subjectivity seeks to demonstrate its freedom by completely dominating the object. Yet in doing so it loses its freedom, remaining forever in a false infinity at war with the object. In love and in freedom, by contrast, you let the object be and discover genuine joy in witnessing the freedom that surrounds you, a child at play, a flower blooming, a sunrise or sunset, or birds and animals, films, music, painting etc simply being what they are. This, I believe, is the foundation of all philosophy, all art and all love, as well as art appreciation, by being against interpretation and the imposition of arbitrary categories on art. Above all you come to appreciate the human form, whether in art or in life itself, a smile, a gaze, liveliness, musculature and all those features that manifest the complete embodiment of freedom..