Expelled
Monday, April 14, 2008
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Kant/Aesthetic judgements
(if you've somehow stumbled across this blog, ignore this post - I don't have Word and writing an essay is way easier here than in Notepad)
PHIL2500 WEEK 5 TUTORIAL QUESTIONS
(Reading: Extracts from Kant's Critique of Judgement)
JOEL COTTERELL
1. According to Kant, why must judgements of beauty and taste be disinterested?
Kant wastes no time in pointing out that a judgement of beauty is purely aesthetic. It is so because it is necessarily about the beautiful object's presentation to the subject, and the nature of the subject's reaction to this presentation. Presentations, Kant argues, are "aesthetic if...the
subject referred them...solely to himself". In support of the idea that a judgement of taste occurs in the subject's contemplation of an object, he later adds that "what matters is what I do with this presentation within myself".
When judgement of an object extends beyond this contemplative realm, the subject's perception of the object is clouded by interest in such a way that aesthetic judgement is no longer possible. Instead of being judged as an ends-in-itself, the object is judged as a means to an end. It is hard for a homeowner to appreciate a painting's beauty if they are more occupied with its usefulness in decorating a bare wall, for instance.
As highlighted in section eight, a judgement of taste/beauty is more than an expression of personal liking, though - it requires that the liking is shared by everyone. Since the subject's perception of an object is guided by their interest therein, and since interest implicitly varies in intensity and kind from subject to subject, an incompatibly arises here between interest and judgements of taste/beauty. Only when the subject is free from interest are they able to make a judgement of taste, looking at the object as an end-in-itself in a way that is universally valid.
PHIL2500 WEEK 5 TUTORIAL QUESTIONS
(Reading: Extracts from Kant's Critique of Judgement)
JOEL COTTERELL
1. According to Kant, why must judgements of beauty and taste be disinterested?
Kant wastes no time in pointing out that a judgement of beauty is purely aesthetic. It is so because it is necessarily about the beautiful object's presentation to the subject, and the nature of the subject's reaction to this presentation. Presentations, Kant argues, are "aesthetic if...the
subject referred them...solely to himself". In support of the idea that a judgement of taste occurs in the subject's contemplation of an object, he later adds that "what matters is what I do with this presentation within myself".
When judgement of an object extends beyond this contemplative realm, the subject's perception of the object is clouded by interest in such a way that aesthetic judgement is no longer possible. Instead of being judged as an ends-in-itself, the object is judged as a means to an end. It is hard for a homeowner to appreciate a painting's beauty if they are more occupied with its usefulness in decorating a bare wall, for instance.
As highlighted in section eight, a judgement of taste/beauty is more than an expression of personal liking, though - it requires that the liking is shared by everyone. Since the subject's perception of an object is guided by their interest therein, and since interest implicitly varies in intensity and kind from subject to subject, an incompatibly arises here between interest and judgements of taste/beauty. Only when the subject is free from interest are they able to make a judgement of taste, looking at the object as an end-in-itself in a way that is universally valid.
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