Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Translator's Introduction: Hartmann on the Mystery and Value of Art -- 1 Beauty and the Perception of Beauty -- 2 The Stratification of Beholding and the Object Beheld as Beautiful -- 3 Hartmann's Deconstruction of Familiar Antinomies in Aesthetics -- 4 Unresolvable Mysteries of Aesthetics -- 5 The Value of Art -- 6 The Future of Aesthetics -- Introduction -- 1 The Aesthetical Attitude and Aesthetics as Knowledge -- 2 Laws of Beauty and Knowledge of Them -- 3 Beauty as the Universal Object of Aesthetics -- 4 Aesthetical Act and Aesthetic Object. Four-Part Analysis -- 5 Separation from and Attachment to Life -- 6 Form and Content, Matter and Material -- 7 Intuition, Enjoyment, Assessment, and Productivity -- 8 Beauty in Nature, Human Beauty, and Beauty in Art -- 9 Idealistic Metaphysics of Beauty. Intellectualism and the Focus on Material Content -- 10 The Aesthetics of Form and of Expression -- 11 Psychological and Phenomenological Aesthetics -- 12 Modes of Being and Structure of the Aesthetic Object -- 13 Reality and Illusion. De-actualization and Appearance -- 14 Imitation and Creativity -- Part One: The Relationship of Appearance -- First Section: The Structure of the Aesthetical Act -- Chapter 1: On Perception in General -- a) Looking through -- b) The perceptual field as practically selected -- c) Emotional components -- Chapter 2: Aesthetic Perception -- a) Return to the original attitude -- b) The given-with and the process of revelation -- c) Dwelling upon the "picture" -- d) The guidance of perception in the aesthetical relation -- Chapter 3: Pleasure in Beholding -- a) The conservation of the dynamic-emotional element in aesthetic perception -- b) Perception and beholding -- c) The role of vital and moral feeling of values -- d) Pleasure, delight, enjoyment.

e) Kant's doctrine of aesthetic pleasure -- Second Section: The Structure of the Aesthetic Object -- Chapter 4: Connection to the Analysis of the Act -- a) Two kinds of looking and two strata of the object -- b) The necessary correction of Hegel's "shining-forth of the idea" -- c) The place of aesthetically autonomous pleasure -- Chapter 5: The Law of Objectivation -- a) The role of "matter" -- b) The spiritual content and the living spirit -- c) Being in itself and being for us in the objectivated spirit -- d) Foreground and background -- Chapter 6: Foreground and Background in the Representational Arts -- a) On ordering the problem and its investigation -- b) Stratification in the plastic arts -- c) Drawing and painting -- d) The fundamental relation in the art of poetry -- e) The objective middle stratum of poetic works -- f) Theater and the art of the actor -- g) Actualization and de-actualization -- Chapter 7: Foreground and Background in the Non-Representational Arts -- a) Free play with form -- b) Beauty in music -- c) The phenomenon of the background in music -- d) Composition and musical execution -- e) On the appearing background in architecture -- f) Practical purpose and free form -- g) The place of ornament -- Third Section: Beauty in Nature and in the Human World -- Chapter 8: The Living Human Being as a Thing of Beauty -- a) Human beauty as appearance -- b) Beauty in relation to moral and to vital values -- c) The appearance of the type -- d) Situation and drama in life -- Chapter 9: Beauty in Nature -- a) The beauty of living things -- b) Beauty in dynamic structure -- c) Beauty in landscapes and related phenomena -- d) Natural beauty and art -- Chapter 10: On the Metaphysics of Natural Beauty -- a) Formal beauty in nature -- b) Indifference, quietude, unconsciousness -- c) Perfection, security, unfreedom.

d) Creations of nature and creations of art -- Part Two: The Bestowal of Form and Stratification -- First Section: The Series of Strata in the Arts -- Chapter 11: Opening up the Background -- a) Modes of being and structures of content -- b) An example: The portrait -- c) Some discussion of this example. Implications -- d) Dependency of appearance and dependency of composition -- e) Filling out ontically the series of strata -- Chapter 12: The Order of Strata in Poetry -- a) The self-testimony of the art of poetry to its middle strata -- b) Poetic concreteness -- c) Distinguishing the strata in poetic works -- d) The most inward stratum. Limits to what can be uttered -- e) Ideas in literature -- f) Toward a survey of the strata -- Chapter 13: The Series of Strata in the Fine Arts -- a) The order of strata in sculpture -- b) The exterior strata in painting -- c) The inner strata in painting -- d) Painting and natural objects -- Chapter 14: Strata in Musical Composition -- a) Levels of musical unity -- b) The inner strata of music -- c) Composition and psychic life -- d) The place of program music -- e) Strata in musical performances -- Chapter 15: Strata in Architecture -- a) The outer strata in buildings -- b) The inner strata of architecture -- c) Community, tradition, style -- Second Section: Aesthetic Form -- Chapter 16: Unity, Limits, Form -- a) Multiplicity of form -- b) Unity of multiplicity -- c) Selection and the setting of limits -- Chapter 17: The Hierarchical Bestowing of Form in the Arts -- a) The peculiar character of bestowing form in art -- b) The hierarchy of form-bestowal by strata -- c) Connections in the giving of form within the strata -- d) Determining form from within -- Chapter 18: Appearance and Form -- a) The dependence and independence of form -- b) Pure play with form -- c) Shallow and profound art.

d) Form and content in the structure of the strata -- Chapter 19: Theory of the Bestowal of Form in Aesthetics -- a) Aesthetical feeling for form -- b) Empathy and activity -- c) The bestowal of form and self-representation -- d) Disengagement from the creator by means of form -- Chapter 20: On the Metaphysics of Form -- a) Imitation and creativity -- b) The finding of form and the phenomenon of style -- c) The great styles of art and fashion -- d) A sensible interpretation of speculative theses -- Third Section: Unity and Truth in Beauty -- Chapter 21: Artistic Freedom and Necessity -- a) Freedom and arbitrariness -- b) The formation of aesthetical ideals -- c) Artistic necessity and unity -- d) The unity of the work and the freedom of creation -- Chapter 22: The Claim of Literature to Truth -- a) The false claim to truth -- b) The requirement to be true to life -- c) The question of strata in the claim to truth -- d) The true-to-life in the first and last strata -- Chapter 23: The True-to-Life and Beauty -- a) The disclosure of life in art -- b) Realism and its limits -- c) On the dialectics of realistic representation -- d) The true-to-life and essential truth -- Chapter 24: Truth in the Fine Arts -- a) Criteria and standards -- b) The true-to-life in painting -- c) Essential truth in painting -- d) The claim to truth in sculpture -- Chapter 25: Truth in the Non-Representational Arts -- a) Limits to the question of truth -- b) The untruth in deceptions of form and in indistinctness -- c) Traces of the true-to-life in music -- d) The situation in program music -- Part Three: Values and Genera of the Beautiful -- First Section: The Aesthetic Values -- Chapter 26: Peculiarity and Multiplicity of Aesthetic Values -- a) The divisions within the problem and the basis of their classification -- b) Differentiations according to the qualia of value feeling.

c) The range of beauty -- Chapter 27: The Situation Today in the Problem of Value -- a) Classes of values and value-aporia -- b) Kinship and contrasts among the classes of values -- c) Goods values and moral values -- d) Intended value and the value of the intention -- e) The metaphysical problem of value -- Chapter 28: The Place of Beauty in the Realm of Values -- a) An attempt to trace the problem -- b) Uselessness of beauty and luxury in life -- c) The founding of aesthetic values upon moral values -- d) The broadening of the foundation to include vital values -- e) Relation to the lower classes of values -- Chapter 29: Survey of the Value-Elements in Beauty -- a) Values of the mere being of objects -- b) The value of de-actualization -- c) Relativity and absoluteness -- Second Section: The Sublime and the Charming -- Chapter 30: Concept and Phenomenon of the Sublime -- a) The domains of appearance of the sublime in life -- b) The appearance of the sublime in the arts -- c) Kant's theory of the sublime -- Chapter 31: The Structure of the Aesthetical Sublime -- a) The special forms of the sublime -- b) The tangible essential characteristics of the sublime -- c) Intangible essential characteristics -- Chapter 32: The Place of the Sublime in the Organizationof the Strata -- a) The preponderance of the inner strata -- b) The sublime in the tragic and its aporias -- c) Questions on the periphery of the sublime -- Chapter 33: The Charming and Its Varieties -- a) Phenomena in opposition to the sublime -- b) Orientation to the nature of the charming -- c) The predominance of the external strata -- Chapter 34: Peripheral Problems of the Charming -- a) Compatibility of the sublime and the charming -- b) Problems marginal to the charming -- c) Other oppositions among aesthetic values -- Chapter 35: The Giving of Meaning in the Aesthetic Values.

a) The world's demand for meaning.