Chaz DeBord

by Saraya Brewer
photos by Lee Thomas

“Only one man ever understood me, and he didn't understand me.”
-G.W.F. Hegel

While the above quotation, attributed to 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Freidrich Hegel, may – for all we know – be true, it is widely known that Hegel charged himself with the task of trying to understand quite a lot.

Noted for creating a philosophical system through which he attempted to comprehend the world by taking virtually every area of inquiry – nature, science, religion, philosophy, etc. – into account, Hegel is both admired and criticized for his seemingly paradoxical explanations of things.

While University of Kentucky philosophy scholar Chaz DeBord is by no means trying to gain a comprehensive understanding of Hegel the man, he does spend much of his time these days intimately intertwined with Hegel’s work. For his doctoral dissertation, DeBord is studying Hegel’s theory on art, ultimately hoping to determine whether or not the theory is relevant to the way we look (or ought to look) at art today.

“The bulk of what I’m doing is to look at Hegel’s lectures to see if they are internally consistent – are there contradictions within the system? Does it hold up under its own weight?” DeBord explained.

Hegel’s aesthetic theory, which seeks to answer questions about what art is, what it does and what it says about society, was controversial when it surfaced because it rejected the popular notions that art was an imitation of nature, or that the true purpose of art was to teach something to society.

Instead, Hegel’s theory claims that works of art are actually the “very first manifestation of human religion...reflections of the sorts of ways the culture sees divinity and comes to terms with what's not physical about us,” said DeBord.

“We want to say that as a people, there are certain things about us that transcend particular physical conditions – how the weather is today, what we had to eat – and Hegel wants to say that art is like the mirror to the things that transcend those particular physical things,” DeBord explained. “That's a weird enough thing to say, but then to go on and say that that mirror is sort of giving birth to concepts ... these are very counterintuitive.” 

These kinds of claims prompt certain questions, said DeBord, such as: How can one involve logic with art? Is that what Hegel is really doing? Is there actually a logic within art or is Hegel just trying to make sense of it in kind of an ad hoc way? These questions serve as a backdrop as DeBord tests the logic and methodology on which Hegel’s theory hinges.

“My ultimate conclusion is going to be yes, Hegel’s claims do hold up under their own weight,” he said. “So, then the next step would be to say, is it true for the kinds of art that we find ourselves around today? What can we say about that?”

One of the most personal parts of DeBord’s research is squaring up what Hegel says with his own experience as an artist.

When DeBord isn’t teaching or studying philosophy, you might catch him creating and recording music, practicing martial arts, or playing ultimate frisbee “at a laughably competitive level.”

Applying one’s personal experience is a dangerous thing to do in any academic endeavor," DeBord said. "If your experience doesn’t support your research, you are left with the option of saying 'there’s another way at looking at what I’ve gone through, that is better informed than my first take. Maybe I’m not the best person to understand what it is I’ve gone through artistically.’”

DeBord, who got his undergraduate degree at Indiana’s Taylor University (“a small liberal arts school literally in the middle of a cornfield”) and his master’s at Texas A&M, came to the University of Kentucky to study under Dan Breazeale, the director of his dissertation and an acclaimed scholar in – you guessed it – 19th century German philosophy.

“He’s a dynamic teacher. That’s a word that I think gets overused, but I mean it in that he doesn’t stick to a static style,” DeBord said of Breazeale, “His expectations are high, but his expectations are clear. And I think at this level, that’s what you want.”

DeBord also credits Ron Bruzina and David Bradshaw as being “influential on his development, as well as informative and graciously patient.” Bruzina’s expertise is 20th century phenomenology as well as 20th and 21st century French philosophy; Bradshaw specializes in ancient philosophy and embraces an ecumenical approach to philosophy.

DeBord, who has taught a number of different philosophy courses at UK and who is currently teaching a course exploring theories of human nature, said that his experience at the University of Kentucky has been interesting in unexpected ways.

“Kentucky is diverse in different ways than other states I have known. You’ve got students from the citified areas like Lexington and Louisville; but then you also have students with more of a Midwestern background from the western part of the state,” he said. “And then you have students from an Appalachian background, which is quite different.”

“One of the interesting parts of being involved with the undergraduate student body is being able to experience a variety of perspectives,” DeBord said.

“I enjoy the inquisitive spirit of the student body.”

And when DeBord leads the classroom with his own inquisitive spirit – there should plenty of thought-provoking questions to fill the room.