kant annotations critique of aesthetic judgment

KANT'S Critique of Aesthetic Judgment

EXPLANATORY NOTES TO SELECTED PASSAGES

These annotations were prepared by Theodore Gracyk. (Copyright Theodore Gracyk 2002) They may be freely reproduced, so long as this complete citation is included with any such reproductions.

the judgment upon the beauty

Kant argues that when we respond to an object's appearance without the guidance of any determinate concept of what it is, we respond aesthetically. One of his principal examples of the ability to judge an object's beauty is our aesthetic response to a beautiful rose. The pleasure that we take in the visual appearance of a rose is independent of the fact that we are looking at the plant's reproductive system. In §16, Kant argues that this response "presupposes no concept of what the object should be." This "pure" response may be due to ignorance of the fact that the concept 'reproductive system' applies to the rose and explains its design. Or one might set aside one's knowledge and concentrate on the visual design simply as a visual design. But if one sets aside both personal desires and all consideration of the reason behind the design, and the resulting aesthetic judgment produces pleasure, then the pleasure is basically a signal that the visual design is suitable for human understanding. So in aesthetic judgment we make a determination about human cognition rather than the object itself. Yet the result is one that we can expect of others whose cognitive faculties are like ours, at least with respect to those features of the presentation that must also be available to other judging subjects. When we judge that this necessity and universality holds of our pleasure, we regard the object as beautiful and not just pleasing. These are judgments of taste.

For more commentary on Kant's aesthetic theory, click here.

beauty of art is a beautiful representation of a thing

In 1746, Charles Batteux summarized the emerging view of fine art by proposing that the fine arts share a common principle in that they all imitate beautiful nature. The fine arts "are music, poetry, painting, drama, and the art of gesture or dance." The fine arts are to be distinguished from the mechanical arts (practical skills like farming and engineering) and from a third group, the arts that combine beauty and practical function (e.g., eloquence and architecture). Because the purpose of fine art is pleasure rather than utility, art should not represent nature "as it ordinarily is." Genius should modify nature into a "beautiful whole, more perfect than nature itself." Batteaux's principle of fine art was discussed and criticized (and thus popularized) by Jean Le Rond d'Alembert in Denis Diderot's Encyclopédie (1781). According to d'Alembert, the fine arts are painting, sculpture, architecture, poetry, and music. (Dance is not separate, and architecture is moved from the mixed arts to the fine arts.) Like Batteux, d'Alembert held that genius idealizes the beauty of nature.

But the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau also influenced Kant. Rousseau and d'Alembert engaged in a bitter dispute over the question of censorship of public theater, with Rousseau taking the position that plays are decadent and corrupt the audience. Rousseau argued that natural beauty is superior to the imperfect reproduction of nature that we find in art. A real rose is always superior to a painting of one. Rousseau's position points the way toward the philosophical and artistic movement of Romanticism.

In §48, Kant endorses the position of Batteux and Diderot when it comes to genius's capacity to create beautiful representations of repulsive subject matter.

In §42, Kant says that neither art nor nature is superior with respect to beauty. Yet §42 also offers the qualified endorsement of a taste for natural beauty:

"If a man with taste enough to judge of works of
fine art with the greatest correctness and refinement readily quits
the room in which he meets with those beauties that minister to vanity
or, at least, social joys, and betakes himself to the beautiful in
nature, so that he may there find as it were a feast for his soul in a
train of thought which he can never completely evolve, we will then
regard this his choice even with veneration, and give him credit for a
beautiful soul, to which no connoisseur or art collector can lay claim
on the score of the interest which his objects have for him."

The Furies were ancient Greek divinities. They lived in Erebus, the darkest pit of the Underworld.

According to Bulfinch's Mythology,

"The Erinnyes, or Furies, were three goddesses who punished by
their secret stings the crimes of those who escaped or defied public
justice. The heads of the Furies were wreathed with serpents, and
their whole appearance was terrific and appalling. Their names
were Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megaera. They were also called
Eumenides."

In Aeschylus' play Furies (458 B.C.E.),
Orestes has killed his mother,
Clytemnestra, in revenge for her murder
of his father, Agamemnon. Although
Orestes is protected by the god Apollo,
his action incurs the wrath of the more
ancient Furies, and they begin to pursue
him.

Left: Ancient Greek portrayal of a Fury attacking Orestes.

Mars (Roman god of war)

A Roman marble statute portraying Mars, official divinity protecting the Roman military.
A small number of Romans worshipped him by
leaving human sacrifices at his altar.

It is likely that the red color of the planet
Mars led both the Greeks and the Romans to name it after this bloodthirsty warrior.

Jupiter's eagle

In Roman mythology, Aquila was Jupiter's eagle. Jupiter (Zeus in Greek
mythology) was the king the Olympian gods, and he was the god of justice.

Aquila carried out many missions for Jupiter, including the punishment of
Prometheus when he stole fire from the Sun and gave it to the human race.
Prometheus was chained to a pillar and the eagle picked at his flesh and liver each
day. Each night, Prometheus healed, and the process resumed the next day.
Hercules arranged for Prometheus's freedom, but after Jupiter granted it, Hercules
shot and killed Aquila with an arrow. Jupiter rewarded the eagle by placing him
among the stars. (We have a constellation named for Aquila.)

This 1930 Italian air mail
stamp shows Jupiter
releasing his eagle over a
Roman road. The Latin
inscription below the image
is from Virgil's Aneid:
"For these I set neither
bounds nor periods of
empire."

Hume

David Hume was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1711. He was raised as a
Scottish Calvinist and attended the University of Edinburgh between the ages
of 13 and 14. After studying law for a short period, he decided to take up a
writing career. His first book and the basis of all his later philosophy, A Treatise
of Human Nature, was completed when he was 26 years old. His
contemporaries largely ignored it. He then turned to writing short, witty essays on
a wide range of subjects, including economics, morality, and civil society. The first
edition of his Essays Moral and Political, of 1741-42, was well received, and the
essays were republished and expanded many times during his life. In 1745, Hume
attempted to gain an academic position at the University of Edinburgh, but his
application was opposed by many in Edinburgh society who believed that he was
an atheist. Hume then rewrote part of his earlier Treatise in a more accessible
form as An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. To it he attached a
notice that he did not want anyone to regard the earlier work as containing his
current views. His fame grew with the publication of the History of Great Britain
(1754-62), which he wrote while employed as a librarian. In 1762 Boswell
declared him "the greatest writer in Britain." After a short career as a diplomat
stationed in Paris, Hume returned to Edinburgh, where he died in 1776.

To learn more about David Hume, click here.

parterre
An ornamental garden with paths between the flower beds.

This formal garden is at
Dunrobin castle, Scotland.
Its division into a series of
parterres dates from the
1800s.

vir bonus dicendi peritus
The Roman definition of an orator.
Literally, a good man skilled in the art of speaking.

Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero: considered the greatest Roman orator.
Also known as a statesman and philosopher (106 B.C.43 B.C.)
For a sample of his work, click here.