Kant's 'Critique of Aesthetic Judgement': A Reader's Guide

205 Pages·2010·1.62 MB·English

by  Fiona Hughes

KANT’S CRITIQUE OF
AESTHETIC JUDGEMENT
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KANT’S CRITIQUE OF
AESTHETIC JUDGEMENT
A Reader’s Guide
FIONA HUGHES
Continuum International Publishing Group
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© Fiona Hughes 2010
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: HB: 978-0-8264-9767-3
PB: 978-0-8264-9768-0
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the
Library of Congress.
Typeset by Newgen Imaging Systems (Pvt) Ltd, Chennai, India
Printed and bound in Great Britain by the MPG Books Group
In fond memory of Michael Podro [1931–2008], art theorist
and passionate philosopher, in conversations with whom
reflective judgement became ‘a feeling of life’.
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgements viii
1. Context 1
2. Overview of Themes 9
3. Reading the Text 18
4. Reception and Influence 149
5. Notes for Further Reading 174
Notes 183
Index 185
vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book is a product of many years’ work on the Critique of
Aesthetic Judgement. In particular, I learned so much over many
of those years from jointly teaching the text at the University
of Essex along with Michael Podro, whose very modus operandi
was an exhibition of reflective judgement. Our audience was
a mixed group of Philosophy and Art History M.A. students,
whose questions and suggestions helped us gradually clarify
how reflective judgement operates. In more recent years I have
taught the text to upper-level undergraduate students at Essex
and discussed a range of related issues with M.A. and Research
students. I am grateful to all of these students, whose perse-
verance and willingness to express puzzlement have helped me
make some progress in determining the indeterminate. I am
particularly grateful to Michael Podro for his support as an
interlocutor, colleague and friend.
The preparation of the final copy of this book led to a fruitful
and enjoyable cooperation with a number of readers. Principal
among these were James Corby, Maria Prodromou and Elin
Simonson, each of whom read the text in its entirety and gave
me extensive comments, valuable suggestions and corrections.
The acuity of their suggestions, enthusiasm for the project and
generosity in time and attention was remarkable. I am also very
grateful to Dana MacFarlane and to John Walshe for helpful
suggestions on aspects of the book. Finally, I would like to
thank the team at Continuum, especially Sarah Campbell, Tom
Crick and P. Muralidharan (in order of my acquaintance with
them) for their efficient and helpful handling of this project.
Despite all of this, any mistakes are, without doubt, my own.
viii
CHAPTER 1
CONTEXT
1 KANT’S ROLE AS A LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
REPRESENTATIVE OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT
Kant came at the end of the period now referred to as ‘The
Enlightenment’. Like his forerunners, he sought to establish a
rational basis for human experience. His particular contribu-
tion was to found a style of philosophizing known as ‘critical’
philosophy or critique. Kant, like other enlightenment think-
ers, saw that while reason was a counterweight to the forces
of dogmatism and mysticism, reason could itself become
dogmatic if it was taken as an absolute foundation. Critical
philosophy seeks to establish the importance of reason, while
limiting its excesses through anchoring it in experience.
Kant’s distinctive way of achieving this goal shared by other
Enlightenment philosophers was to trace experience back to
grounds that make it possible, a priori conditions or the prin-
ciples that govern knowledge and morality. Such principles are
necessary if there is to be any experience whatsoever, but they
are in no way sufficient conditions of experience. Principles
must be applied within experience, just as the latter is always
open to rational critique. Thus Kant expressed his commit-
ment to experience at the same time as insisting that it can
be analysed from a rational perspective. I will be emphasizing
that, for Kant, if the principles governing our project of know-
ing things in the world and our moral actions, respectively, are
to be established, each must be traced back to a distinctive
cognitive faculty. Understanding is the most important mental
capacity we possess when we aim to achieve knowledge, while
reason is paramount in moral matters. The identification of
principles for our cognitive and moral projects will require
establishing the subjective grounds of their possibility, along-
side an analysis of the principles that arise from those grounds
and make experience possible. This is the dual focus of Kant’s
1