Chapter II: Introduction

I. The Limits of Aesthetic defined, and certain Objections against the Philosophy of Art refuted

[(_a_) Aesthetic confined to Beauty of Art

(_b_) Is Art unworthy of scientific consideration?

(_c_) Or at least is it incapable of truly philosophical exposition? Negative answer to both these questions]

II. Scientific Methods which apply to the Beautiful and Art

[1. The Empirical Method

2. Abstract Reflection

3. The Philosophical Idea of artistic Beauty, that is, the notional concept thereof, provisionally defined]

III. The Notion of the Beauty of Art

Observations upon the ordinary ideas about Art

1. The art-work is a creation of human activity

[(_a_) Theory of imitation of Art by rule

(_b_) Art as direct inspiration

(_c_) The rank of Art relatively to Nature

(_d_) The nature of the human Art-impulse]

2. The art-work is addressed to human sense

[(_a_) Theory that its object is to excite feeling

(_b_) The nature of artistic taste

(_c_) The nature of art-scholarship as contrasted with artistic taste

(_d_) The more philosophical consequences of the fact that Art appeals to sense and requires a sensuous medium for its expression]

3. The End or Interest of Art

[(_a_) Is it imitation of Nature?

(_b_) Is the end or content identical with the dictum, "Humani nihil a me alienum," etc.

(_c_) How far it is a mitigation or purification of the passions

(_d_) The higher object of Art which consists in its revelation of truth in itself]

IV. Historical Deduction of the true Notion of Art

1. The philosophy of Kant

[(_a_) Feeling of aesthetic satisfaction not appetitive

(_b_) Beauty an object of universal satisfaction

(_c_) Teleological aspect of the Beautiful

(_d_) Pleasure in the Beautiful necessary, though felt

2. Schiller, Winckelmann, and Schelling

3. Irony]

V. Division of the Subject

[1. Inquiry as to the mode under which the divisions of the subject arise from the notional concept of Beauty

2. Part I. The Ideal

3. Part II. The particular general types of Beauty

(_a_) The Symbolic type of Art

(_b_) The Classical type of Art

(_c_) The Romantic type of Art

4. Part III. The specific arts

(_a_) Architecture

(_b_) Sculpture

(_c_) Romantic art, which includes

(_α_) Painting

(_β_) Music

(_γ_) Poetry

5. Conclusion]

FIRST PART

THE IDEA OF THE BEAUTY OF ART OR THE IDEAL

The Position of Art relatively to finite Reality, Religion, and Philosophy

[(_a_) Theory that the Beautiful is no intelligible object of thought

(_b_) The relation of the human reason to Nature both empirically and speculatively

(_c_) The realm of Fine Art that of the Absolute Spirit

(_d_) How far Art responds to a genuine spiritual want in man

(_e_) The truth which forms the content of art, religion, and philosophy differs only in the modes under which it is presented]

CHAPTER I

THE NOTION OF THE BEAUTIFUL IN GENERAL

1. The Idea

[(_a_) The Idea is concrete, not abstract

(_b_) Objectivity is the real existence of the notion, and the means whereby it is actualized

(_c_) The Idea is the harmonized totality of the two aspects]

2. The Determinate Existence of the Idea

3. The Idea of the Beautiful

[(_a_) Not apprehended alone by the faculty of the understanding, or the finite categories

(_b_) The nature of finite or abstract apprehension and practical volition considered

(_c_) The object of beauty resolves and the one-sidedness of both standpoints in a free and infinite totality]