On Hegel’s Tragedy View

Hegel’s view of tragedy is rooted in the special social and historical background and deeply influenced by the German Enlightenment thoughts and the French Revolution.Hegel’s view of tragedy is not only the absorption,development,and innovation of drama aesthetics in ancient Greece and Germany but also the crystallization of his rich experience of art appreciation and his strict dialectical philosophy cultivation.The core of Hegel’s theory of tragedy is Conflict Theory and Reconciliation Theory.He believed that the universal rational Ethical Entity was the ultimate power of tragedy,which was caused by the conflict between two incompatible ethical forces.The tragic conflict finally reached a reconciliation and achieved the Victory of Eternal Justice due to the mutual destruction of both sides.The process from the emergence of tragic conflict to reconciliation is the ascending cycle of Ethical Entity from "self-splitting" to "reconciliation".The internal logical connection between Hegel’s view of tragedy and Absolute Spirit is embodied in three dimensions: epistemology,ontology,and dialectics.In epistemology,Hegel acknowledged that art has the function of knowing the truth,and believed that tragedy is one of the ways to know Absolute Spirit,but it is not the highest form to know Absolute Spirit.In ontology,Hegel evolved the development process of tragedy into a special metaphysical spiritual movement and explained the tragedy problem purely rational in line with its ontological provisions.On dialectics,Hegel explained the three stages of the development of the internal plot of the tragedy by the process of conflict and reconciliation caused by the splitting of the Ethical Entity,which perfectly fited the dialectical logic of the Positive,Opposite and Whole.