"Sense Is This Wonderful Word..." Hegel and the Aesthetic

A quest for sense is often taken to be a, if not the, main task of philosophy. Still, the relationship between philosophy and sense remains a complicated one, as “sense” is both what is most immediate in perception and what is most abstract and distant from perceptual immediacy. Such apparent contradiction is directly taken on by Hegel. The present collection reunites explorations of Hegel’s conception of sense from multiple perspectives, unified by their common reference to the aesthetic dimension. In turn, the complexity of “sense” allows different aspects of Hegel's concept of the aesthetic to emerge, also in relation to contemporary debates.

Nicola Ramazzotto recently completed his Ph.D. in aesthetics at the University of Pisa. His research focuses on German idealism, phenomenology, and pragmatism. He edited L’estetica pragmatista in dialogo (Edizioni ETS, 2022) and Dewey’s Experience and Nature: A Critical Guide (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming).Elena Romagnoli is Junior Assistant Professor of aesthetics in the Department of Civilizations and Forms of Knowledge at the University of Pisa. She has published monographs, translations and many articles. She coedited Gadamer on Art and Aesthetic Experience. Rethinking Hermeneutical Aesthetics Today (SUNY Press, 2025).Alberto L. Siani is Associate Professor of aesthetics in the Department of Civilizations and Forms of Knowledge at the University of Pisa. He is the author of Hegel and the Present of Art’s Past Character (Routledge, 2024) and Landscape Aesthetics: Toward an Engaged Ecology (Columbia University Press, 2024), among other publications.