History of Modern Philosophy Kant’s Critique of Judgment—1

Critique of judgment

Kant’s Critique of Judgment (1790) generally regarded as foundational treatise in modern

philosophical aesthetics

no integration of aesthetic theory into a complete philosophical system predates Kant’s third

Critique

until 1780's Kant did not consider what we now know as aesthetics to be a legitimate subject for

philosophy

he denied the principles of taste

philosophy?

that would join theoretical philosophy (metaphysics) and practical philosophy (ethics)?

he hoped to provide a theory of the aesthetic judgment that would justify its apparent claim to

intersubjective validity, and escape the temptations of skepticism and relativism

believed this could be accomplished only by giving a deeper interpretation of art and its values

and by establishing for it a more intimate connection with the basic cognitive faculties of the

mind

Critique of Pure Reason uncovered a priori conditions [mind software] for making objective,

universally valid empirical judgments, both ordinary and scientific [the mind imposes space,

time, and causality on experience]

pleasure—the judgment that something is beautiful

his epistemology and metaphysics based on division between

Sensibility—the ability to be affected by things by receiving sensations; this is not yet at the

level of thought, or even experience in any meaningful sense

Understanding—the faculty of producing thoughts; it is non-sensible, discursive, works with

general concepts, not individual intuitions

History of Modern Philosophy Kant’s Critique of Judgment—2

Ordinary experience comes about through the synthesis of these two powers

the Understanding takes the material of sensation and organizes it into a concept

resulting in a thought or judgment

by ‘judgment’ Kant simply means experience that results in a claim or assertion about something

FIRST MOMENT (QUALITY)

Disinterested Pleasure

concludes that in order to call an object beautiful one must judge it to be

“the object of an entirely disinterested satisfaction or dissatisfaction”

aesthetic pleasure comes only to those who attend to the object disinterestedly

how does Kant reach this conclusion:

begins with the observation that the judgment of taste is an aesthetic judgment

thus not a cognitive judgment

in a cognitive judgment I use a concept to connect my experience to an object

in an aesthetic judgment, I don’t use a concept, but my own subjective state (sentiment)

“a disinterested and free satisfaction; for no interest, either of sense or of reason, here forces

our assent”

the pleasure in the beautiful is not in an object’s gratifying our senses: like sweetness of candy

nor is it based on finding some practical use (the mediately good or the useful)

nor based on fulfilling moral requirements (the morally good)

the pleasure in the beautiful is “merely contemplative”

a kind of free contemplation and reflection

this disinterestedness is what is unique about the judgment of taste

for contemplation and reflection are absent in what pleases through sensation

and contemplation and reflection in the practical concerns (the useful or moral) are not free but

History of Modern Philosophy Kant’s Critique of Judgment—3

Universal Pleasure

concludes that “the beautiful is that which pleases universally without [requiring] a concept”

this conclusion is badly put since it is plainly false: a beautiful thing does not please everyone

we make the judgment that something is beautiful ‘as if’ beauty where a real property of the

object—in this sense the pleasure in the beautiful is not wholly subjective

we think that others should find the object beautiful as well, while fully recognizing that not

everyone will in fact agree

“the judgment of taste itself does not postulate the agreement of everyone”

we tend to see disagreements over judgment of the beautiful as involving error

an agreement as more than coincidence

Kant calls this feature of judgments of taste their “subjective universality”

argues for this in two ways

1) through the concept of disinterestedness

Judgments of taste are not objective but only subjectively universal

they cannot be proved

“there can be no rule according to which anyone is to be forced to recognize anything as

beautiful”

At this point Kant’s explication of the judgment of taste seems to lead to an insoluble problem:

the judgment of taste is based on feeling of pleasure but also claims universal validity

yet judgments of taste cannot be proved since they do not rest on concepts or rules

the crucial question, which Kant says “is the key to the critique of taste”

How is it that the feeling of pleasure in the beautiful is universally communicable?

History of Modern Philosophy Kant’s Critique of Judgment—4

The answer is that the pleasure is universally communicable only if it is based not one mere

sensation but on a state of mind that is universally communicable

since the only universally communicable states of mind are cognitive states

but he has already determined that a judgment of taste is not cognitive in that there is no referring

however the end result is not a definite concept

instead the two faculties interact in free play:

the imagination forms a representation of the object

but unlike the case of cognition

the understanding does not form a definite concept

for in aesthetic experience no definite concept could adequately capture what we observe

in aesthetic experience the two faculties do not come to a definite conclusion but they work

back and forth in a free play between imagination and understanding

take the case of the experience of a flower

in the case of cognition, the imagination presents to the understanding a representation of the

but the imagination is continually reworking its representations

thus in aesthetic experience there is more than understanding can grasp

the understanding also stimulates the imagination into further reformulations

the aesthetic experience thus enhances our experience of the object’s particularity

while cognition seeks generically classifiable features

THIRD MOMENT (RELATION)

The Form of Purposiveness

purports to explain what is being related to in the judgment that something is beautiful

the content of the judgment of taste

History of Modern Philosophy Kant’s Critique of Judgment—5

Kant concludes it is the form of the purposiveness or finality of an object, insofar as this is

perceived without any representation of a purpose

“purposiveness without purpose”

on the perceived form of the object

manifested in the spatial delineation or design of figures

temporal composition of tones

ornamentation or elements of charm or emotion may attract us to beautiful objects

but in order to make an aesthetic judgment we must abstract from these elements

reflect only on the form

the harder part of the third moment concerns the concept of “purposiveness without purpose”

to say that an object (say a knife) has a purpose is to say that the concept of its being the way it is,

having the form it has, came first and is the cause of its existence

to appreciate the beauty of the knife

when we find something beautiful we think that everyone ought to give their approval and also

describe it as beautiful

as we cannot prove that everyone will find the same object beautiful

this necessity is not theoretical, objective

Kant calls the necessity

“exemplary”

“conditioned”

based on a “ground that is common to all”

History of Modern Philosophy Kant’s Critique of Judgment—6

describes this as “common sense”

“A subjective principle which determines what pleases or displeases only by feeling and not

by concepts, but yet with universal validity”

it is a common sense that is exemplary—an ideal or norm—but is presupposed by all aesthetic

call an object beautiful—to give an explanation of what a judgment of taste means

but Kant also begins to discuss the problem of whether one can ‘provide a deduction’ (show the

legitimacy) of a class of judgment “which imputes the same satisfaction necessarily to everyone”

this is what he thinks subsumes the Critique of Judgment under transcendental philosophy

the key question of philosophical aesthetics:

is it legitimate to make a judgment based merely on the pleasure experienced in perceptually

apprehending something, while implying that everyone ought to agree?

Kant believes he has established a link to “the general problem of transcendental philosophy:

how are synthetical a priori judgments possible?”

His answer:

History of Modern Philosophy Kant’s Critique of Judgment—7

pleasantness of sensation, or even concepts

experiencing beauty is thus a doubly reflective process:

1) we reflect on the spatial and temporal form of the object

the experience of the sublime seems to directly contradict the principle of the purposiveness of

what is properly sublime are the ideas of reason

Fine Art and Artistic Genius