Kant’s Aesthetic Theory and the Problem of Particularity Essay example

Kants Aesthetic Theory and the trouble of Particularity abbreviation In moving away from the objective, property-based theories of earlier periods to a subject-based aesthetic, Kant did not intend to give up the idea that judgments of beauty are universalizable. Accordingly, the Deduction of Judgments of Taste (KU, 38) aims to build how reflective aesthetic judgments can be imputed a priori to all human subjects. The Deduction is not successful Kant manages only to justify the imputation of the same form of aesthetic experience to everyone he does not show that this experience will universally occur in response to the same objects. This is what I call Kants Problem of Particularity. After critiquing Anthony Saviles attempt to all overcome this Problem by linking Kants aesthetics to the theory of rational ideas, I elucidate the concept of (the oft-unnoticed) aesthetic attributes ( 49) in a way that allows us to solve the Problem of Particularity.The central elements of Immanuel K ants faculty-based aesthetic theory are reasonably familiar In non-aesthetic cognitions, the faculty of supposition serves to synthesize sense intuitions and reproduce them in a manifold that is then unified under concepts by the faculty of understanding. The unification of the sensory manifold is thereof a cognitive aim (Absicht) with respect to knowledge.(1) A crucial claim of the third Critique is that in conjunction with reflective experience of certain objects, the sight presents the sensory manifold already unified, as it were, without the use of a concept. This harmony of the two faculties accomplishes that cognitive aim in a sort of unexpected way, and is the actor of a noticeable pleasure.(2) It is on the basis of this ple... ... aesthetic Ideas is built right into the concept. CJ, 186.(35) CJ, 196.(36) CJ, 145-6. Kant discusses the case of a young poet who will not be convinced by others disapprobation of his poem. And Kant seems to applaud this stubbornness, since it is incumbent on the individual to arrive at his own, autonomous judgment of taste. This implies that there may often be disagreement over such judgments on our scheme, this would be explained by the fact that if the work is indeed beautiful, then those who think otherwise have allowed other interests or prejudices to impede the fruit of an Idea in them. It is another question, one I shall not address here, whether this neglect is somehow culpable. See the important footnote to the Deduction, CJ, 155.(37) CJ, 189, my emphasis.(38) CJ, 183.(39) CJ, 166-167.(40) Savile, 174.(41) CJ, 156.