The Sensuous and Truth: Hegel’s Prose in Light of his Aesthetics

Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Hegel’s conception of art is a complex one that has given rise to many controversies, none more pertinent for aesthet-ics today than the debate regarding Hegel’s equation of artistic beauty and truth. In the context of Hegel’s philosophy this leads inevitably to some confusion as to the relative status of art next to the other purveyors of truth: religion and philosophy, which constitute Absolute Spirit. One possible con-sequence of Hegel’s art theory which seems to have gone little noticed is the question of what role the sensuous can play in the higher reaches of Spirit, if Spirit’s apprehension of truth has already been cleansed of the external and the material after it leaves the realm of art. This question has a particular relevance for philosophy. After all, the main form of philosophical discourse is the prose it is written in.