 Similar ideas are developed in more rigorous and systematic fashion by Hegel, whose reflections on music are embedded in an articulated system of the arts (see Moland 2019: chapter 9). This system is itself related to a historical analysis of art’s development, which in turn is grounded in an idealist metaphysics. According to Hegel, reality coincides with a self-determining spiritual principle, or Idea (Idee). The Idea develops historically through branching triadic patterns constituted by a thesis, or positive moment, its negation or antithesis, and a synthesis of the two. Each moment may itself branch into a further triadic pattern, which is thus nested under the higher-order ones. The highest forms of development of the Idea involve self-conscious Spirit (Geist), as we find it in human life and society. Spirit’s third moment is absolute spirit, which in turn branches into art, religion, and philosophy, the latter being the culmination of the Idea’s unfolding. Art’s relative proximity to philosophy is an indication of its relatively high value in Hegel’s eyes, and its contiguity to religion will mean that at least some art will share some features with religion. Whereas philosophy expresses the Spirit through concepts, and religion does so through metaphors and representations, art is the sensuous expression of the Spirit’s freedom. Beauty is thus defined as “the pure appearance of the Idea to sense” (Hegel 1835: part I, chapter I, 3).