ABSTRACT
This chapter solves the problem of existence by not only philosophy but also the fine arts. But all the arts speak only the naive and childlike language of perception, not the abstract and serious language of reflection: their answer is therefore a fleeting image, not a lasting general cognizance. Accordingly, every work of art is really endeavoring to show us life and things as they are in truth, although not, through the fog of objective and subjective contingencies, as they can be comprehended immediately by everyone. This is a condition of the aesthetic effect and therefore a fundamental law of all the fine arts. From the fundamental aesthetic law in question, it can also be explained why, though the imitation of nature can reach the highest degree precisely in them, wax figures can never produce an aesthetic effect and are therefore not true works of fine art.
