Milos Z.M. 702.1 Kant and Hegel Prof. C. Lonegan August 2015 Tell me with whom you consort with and I will tell you who you are. - Goethe The philosophies of Kant and Hegel emerge in the wake of the Enlightenment and are indebted to the project of universal reason. Kant uses the word Aufklarung to mean man's progressive emergence from the shadowy realm of superstition and ignorance towards the clear light of reason. Both philosophers follow the light of reason and attempt to create a comprehensive system of knowledge for the benefit of the community. Regarding the philosophy of art, Kant can be likened to a neuroscientist concerned with the how the mind works when confronted with a beautiful something while Hegel is located somewhere between Art History, Theology and Sociology as his concern is primarily the historical development of the mind-soul-spirit and art's value within a historical context. In this paper I will argue in favor of Hegel's engaged ideas on art against Kant's disinterested aesthetics. Kant seeks to achieve a universal art theory which reflects the autonomy and atemporality of the Kantian subject. Paradoxically the taste of beauty is based on subjective feeling yet it claims universal validity as if it were a true statement other people could experience independently by their own accord. The immediate feeling of pleasure derived from a judgment of beauty is due to the free play of the faculties - imagination and understanding. These faculties are part of the cognitive machinery of the Kantian subject. Commonality is abstracted out-from-the-subject devoid of any direct relationship with the object. Judgments of taste are based on a human predisposition towards communicability by which the speaking subject derives pleasure. According to Kant's idea of a common sense (not in the Thomas Paine sense) the subjective feeling of beauty is introduced to the public. On the contrary, Hegel insists on the immanence of subject-object relationship . Art as every other phenomena is subject to mutation. Human society changes as different needs and desires arise