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Aesthetics: Volume I
Dietrich von Hildebrand understood the centrality of beauty not merely to art but to philosophy, theology, and ethics. In his ambitious and comprehensive Aesthetics, now translated into English for the first time, Hildebrand rehabilitates the concept of beauty as an objective rather and purely subjective phenomenon. His systematic account renews the Classical and Christian vision of beauty as a reliable mode of perception that leads humanity toward the true, the good, and ultimately the divine.
There is no more important issue in our culture--sacred or secular--than the restoration of beauty. And there is no better place to start this urgent enterprise than Dietrich von Hildebrand's Aesthetics. - Dana Gioia | From the Foreword
There is no more important issue in our culture--sacred or secular--than the restoration of beauty. And there is no better place to start this urgent enterprise than Dietrich von Hildebrand's Aesthetics. - Dana Gioia | From the Foreword
510 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 13, 2016
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About the author
Dietrich von Hildebrand
76 books210 followersDietrich von Hildebrand was a German Catholic philosopher and theologian who was called (informally) by Pope Pius XII "the 20th Century Doctor of the Church."
Pope John Paul II greatly admired the work of von Hildebrand, remarking once to von Hildebrand's widow, Alice von Hildebrand, "Your husband is one of the great ethicists of the twentieth century." Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has a particular admiration and regard for Dietrich von Hildebrand, whom he already knew as a young priest in Munich. In fact, as young Fr. Ratzinger, he even served as an assistant pastor in the church of St. Georg in Munich, which von Hildebrand frequented in the 1950s and 1960s. It was also in St. Georg that Dietrich and Alice von Hildebrand were married.
The degree of Pope Benedict's esteem is expressed in one of his statements about von Hildebrand, "When the intellectual history of the Catholic Church in the twentieth century is written, the name of Dietrich von Hildebrand will be most prominent among the figures of our time." Von Hildebrand was a vocal critic of the changes in the church brought by the Second Vatican Council. He especially resented the new liturgy. Of it he said "Truly, if one of the devils in C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters had been entrusted with the ruin of the liturgy, he could not have done it better."
Von Hildebrand died in New Rochelle, New York, in 1977.
Pope John Paul II greatly admired the work of von Hildebrand, remarking once to von Hildebrand's widow, Alice von Hildebrand, "Your husband is one of the great ethicists of the twentieth century." Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has a particular admiration and regard for Dietrich von Hildebrand, whom he already knew as a young priest in Munich. In fact, as young Fr. Ratzinger, he even served as an assistant pastor in the church of St. Georg in Munich, which von Hildebrand frequented in the 1950s and 1960s. It was also in St. Georg that Dietrich and Alice von Hildebrand were married.
The degree of Pope Benedict's esteem is expressed in one of his statements about von Hildebrand, "When the intellectual history of the Catholic Church in the twentieth century is written, the name of Dietrich von Hildebrand will be most prominent among the figures of our time." Von Hildebrand was a vocal critic of the changes in the church brought by the Second Vatican Council. He especially resented the new liturgy. Of it he said "Truly, if one of the devils in C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters had been entrusted with the ruin of the liturgy, he could not have done it better."
Von Hildebrand died in New Rochelle, New York, in 1977.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 13, 2025
a must read for aesthetics and beauty.
March 14, 2018
One of the most important books one could read on beauty, and a desperately needed remedy against the modern impact of subjectivism in the arts and the proliferation of the trivial. Down to earth, humorous, and at times prophetic, Hildebrand should be regarded as the preeminent authority on aesthetics. I hope that Volume II, which was not complete at the time of his death, is able to be published to supplement this incredible book.
June 1, 2018
A full and quite thorough philosophical discussion of aesthetics, which is detailed but readable. Hildebrand is firmly an objectivist and is refreshingly less concerned with interacting with every historic and contemporary view, than with applying his aesthetics to poetry, music, sound, comedy and more.
May 29, 2020
Very good. Many reminders of Gregory of Nyssa here, particularly in von Hildebrand’s idea of metaphysical “beauty to the second power” in relation to truth and goodness.
November 18, 2020
Fascinating conceptions of beauty in a wonderfully true context.
December 19, 2023
A strange feature of our world is that we are obsessed with ranking things like music or movies or books, debating matters of taste, trying to achieve a high degree of perfection in our artistic pursuits, etc., and yet many would claim beauty doesn’t exist, or is in the eye of the beholder. Why is that? We act and speak as though beauty is real, and yet if asked if it is objectively real the same way mathematical truths are, many/most would have the knee-jerk response of “No, absolutely not.”
Von Hildebrand’s Aesthetics establishes that beauty is an objective value in things. When we say “the view from the mountain is beautiful,” or “that song is beautiful,” these are coherent statements that we completely understand. Similarly, if someone was to claim they thought Diary of a Wimpy Kid was more beautiful than Othello, you would probably strongly disagree, or you would agree, or you would think they were joking, and any of those three responses would be implicitly saying that beauty is an objectively real thing and objects that have beauty can have it to a greater or lesser degree. If you were to say “That’s completely fine and that’s your taste,” it would probably cause lots of psychological dissonance, or you would say it and not really mean it, or you would think you meant it but still go on making aesthetic judgements in your life and never be able to explain why in a satisfying way.
When we accept that beauty is objectively real, all our pursuits of it make perfect sense. Of course we rate books and movies and music, of course we argue over which Beatles album is the best, of course we take singing lessons and practice our instruments for hours each day. We are captivated by the objectively real thing called Beauty. When it is subjective, this lessens us to self-absorbed egoists who are only chasing after the next thing that makes us feel good. When it is objective, it has the strongest possible grounds for study in education. Education in the arts is the study of deeper appreciation of deeper, greater, more complex works of art within the great genres of literature, music, and art. This study is not "for" something, like we study science so that ultimately we can get a job, but rather it is something worth studying for its own sake as something that adds immeasurable value to life for every person. Without it, we may as well throw out literature classes, art classes, music classes, and so on, which of course we are very near to doing with how greatly we diminish these studies in favor of more obviously real things like math and scientific knowledge, or in the ways we subordinate say literature to "identifying key words" and the like. But what we lose is the pursuit of the objective reality that pierces most deeply into our heart. Very few feel passionately about a mathematical equation (though some do and of course, that's awesome and legitimate), where almost every student I've had would seemingly go to death defending their favorite band.
Beautiful things fill us with love and joy and passion. The debate over what is most beautiful is important because it directly relates to the heart, over what to love. The abandonment of beauty as an objective value is strongly felt today in many places (our ugly buildings, our ugly airports, our ugly art and poetry that leaves many people thinking that art and poetry as a whole are stupid and pointless). Nobody is happy in an office building. Nearly everyone is happy in a theater listening to a beautiful symphony. The fight over beauty is the fight over the human heart.
Von Hildebrand dives deep into beauty, what it is, direct beauty (art objects, the natural world, the human face) and indirect beauty (moral actions have a beautiful “fragrance,” mathematical theorems are sometimes praised as beautiful), which senses are most keenly attuned to beauty (sight and hearing) why this is, beauty’s relation to love, and whether or not ugliness exists, among many other aesthetic topics. I feel that this is the Summa but for Aesthetics.
Von Hildebrand’s Aesthetics establishes that beauty is an objective value in things. When we say “the view from the mountain is beautiful,” or “that song is beautiful,” these are coherent statements that we completely understand. Similarly, if someone was to claim they thought Diary of a Wimpy Kid was more beautiful than Othello, you would probably strongly disagree, or you would agree, or you would think they were joking, and any of those three responses would be implicitly saying that beauty is an objectively real thing and objects that have beauty can have it to a greater or lesser degree. If you were to say “That’s completely fine and that’s your taste,” it would probably cause lots of psychological dissonance, or you would say it and not really mean it, or you would think you meant it but still go on making aesthetic judgements in your life and never be able to explain why in a satisfying way.
When we accept that beauty is objectively real, all our pursuits of it make perfect sense. Of course we rate books and movies and music, of course we argue over which Beatles album is the best, of course we take singing lessons and practice our instruments for hours each day. We are captivated by the objectively real thing called Beauty. When it is subjective, this lessens us to self-absorbed egoists who are only chasing after the next thing that makes us feel good. When it is objective, it has the strongest possible grounds for study in education. Education in the arts is the study of deeper appreciation of deeper, greater, more complex works of art within the great genres of literature, music, and art. This study is not "for" something, like we study science so that ultimately we can get a job, but rather it is something worth studying for its own sake as something that adds immeasurable value to life for every person. Without it, we may as well throw out literature classes, art classes, music classes, and so on, which of course we are very near to doing with how greatly we diminish these studies in favor of more obviously real things like math and scientific knowledge, or in the ways we subordinate say literature to "identifying key words" and the like. But what we lose is the pursuit of the objective reality that pierces most deeply into our heart. Very few feel passionately about a mathematical equation (though some do and of course, that's awesome and legitimate), where almost every student I've had would seemingly go to death defending their favorite band.
Beautiful things fill us with love and joy and passion. The debate over what is most beautiful is important because it directly relates to the heart, over what to love. The abandonment of beauty as an objective value is strongly felt today in many places (our ugly buildings, our ugly airports, our ugly art and poetry that leaves many people thinking that art and poetry as a whole are stupid and pointless). Nobody is happy in an office building. Nearly everyone is happy in a theater listening to a beautiful symphony. The fight over beauty is the fight over the human heart.
Von Hildebrand dives deep into beauty, what it is, direct beauty (art objects, the natural world, the human face) and indirect beauty (moral actions have a beautiful “fragrance,” mathematical theorems are sometimes praised as beautiful), which senses are most keenly attuned to beauty (sight and hearing) why this is, beauty’s relation to love, and whether or not ugliness exists, among many other aesthetic topics. I feel that this is the Summa but for Aesthetics.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews