Kant 's Critique Of Judgment

philosophy of taste and beauty and vary from person to person. These determine the varying

Immanuel Kant is said by many to be one of the most influential “thinkers” in the history of Western philosophy (McCormick, n.d.), this being said, most of his theories continue to be taught and are highly respected by society. Kant was a firm believer that the morality of any action can be assessed by the motivation behind it (McCormick, n.d.). In other words, if an action is good but the intention behind the action is not good, the action itself would be considered immoral. Those who follow the utilitarian view would disagree, arguing that an action which benefits the most number of people would be considered moral regardless of the intentions behind it. Kant argues that the intention behind an action matters more than the number of people benefited. This theory of morality falls hand in hand with Kant 's concept of good will, and through examples I hope to explain to readers, in a simple way, what Kant was trying to convey.

Another topic that Kant contributed to is morality. According to Kant, moral laws cannot be derived from human nature. To put it in other terms, it is not human nature that should be used as a model to how we should behave morally. Kant believed that humans do not always make the right moral decisions because human nature can be flawed at times, often times choosing an animalistic desire over doing something that is morally permissible. In addition, Kant believed that the outcome of human nature is not the central issue when it comes to knowing what is right or what is wrong. Instead, Kant believes that it each of the individual actions that should be analyzed to see if it is morally wrong or if it is morally right. Kant’s point of view about morality is different from previous philosophers, because most of them looked to human nature in order to find the morally right things to do.

Kant argues that beauty is symbolic of morality. Werner S. Pluhar states, “Only man is capable of an ideal of beauty, and the ideal involves the concept of man’s

The subjective element of beauty involves judgment, not opinion. Many people feel beauty is only something seen by the eyes. St. Thomas Aquinas views beauty in both the supernatural and natural orders. Aquinas lists the attributes of beauty to be found in nature. These are; unity, proportion, and clarity. We will see how these attributes of beauty are seen through the eye and felt by the heart.

Plotinus begins by asking his audience to consider what beauty is. He offers the example of some things being beautiful by “the nature of the objects themselves,” and something instead are beautiful “by participation,” such as being virtuous (Plotinus 1). He prompts the audience to ask themselves whether beauty is sensory- since one may see or hear things they consider beautiful, what catches the attention of someone ultimately leading to a feeling of attraction to certain things (Plotinus 1)?

Pleasure, contemplation, and judgment are the key elements in aesthetics. Pleasure is what you feel after watching a certain piece of art, which can be positive or negative emotions as the goal of this step is to accept everything you feel from it, so you can think about it in the contemplation phase. Like I said before contemplation is the thinking phase, which means that the goal is to understand all of the emotions that you might be having in the pleasure phase in order to make a clear verdict on the art in the judgment phase. Judgment is basically the result of the two other elements as a person has to feel and handle their feelings after watching an artwork in order to make the conclusion of if they like or dislike the artwork. The three parts make up to be the aesthetic appreciation, however it’s still possible to go further and enter the criticism phase in order to explain why you might like or dislike an artwork while using logical reasons.

Art and beauty are synonymous to one another. Vocabulary.com defines art as the expression of ideas and emotions through a physical medium, like painting, sculpture, film, dance, writing, photography, or theatre. Vocabulary.com also defines beauty as “A noun depicting an incredibly pleasing or harmonious quality or feature, beauty is hard to describe.” These definitions refer to art as a definite object, physical or metaphysical while beauty is subjective. It is open to interpretation, thus implicating, that since the two are synonymous that art is also open to individual interpretation. With Elaine Scarry’s “On Beauty and Being Just” she defends beauty from the political arguments against it but also argues that beauty does indeed press us

‘It is an empirical judgement [to say] that I perceive and judge an object with pleasure. But it is an a priori judgement [to say] that I find it beautiful, i.e. I attribute this satisfaction necessarily to everyone.’ (Kant, 1790, p. 165)

For my community service learning I am planning on helping serve for a fish fry dinner with my friend, Rachel, at her church. I have never attended a fish fry, so I am not sure what to expect other than greeting those that walk in and asking them where they would like to sit. Because it is a church event, I expect everyone to be friendly. Rachel and I live far away from each other meaning more than likely, I will not know anyone else helping with the dinner. It may not be to my advantage not knowing anyone, but it should be fun to meet new people. Sometimes I can be very quiet, so I am hoping that I feel comfortable and can open up to others so that I can have a fun time. Overall, I think I will enjoy this assignment because I like giving back

This movement away from feelings and towards foundational principles of taste is where Kant most explicitly diverges from Hume. These ‘a priori foundations of taste’, as I have called them, can unite one with the human race at large. A judgment of taste, to Kant, is what you share with your neighbor, what unites you to your species, it is to speak with a universal voice. When we employ this voice, we have certain expectations; namely, we except others to assent to the views expressed. Although, how do we properly use this voice so apparent within us? The four moments Kant presents in Critique of Judgment are part of a social/moral training in becoming a critic capable of doing so. In this way, coming to agreement is to come to know or grasp that which ought to be shared by all humans, and is deeply rooted in our common sense cognitive capacities.

What I found interesting was Kant’s view of the various peculiarities, which surrounds the notion that there is no empirical ground able to challenge the judgment of taste. Thus with aesthetic judgment, such issues and questions revolving around it are not believed to require proofs, logic, and theoretical standards. It is our personal taste that decides such matters of judgment based on inner feelings without the knowledge of aesthetic reasoning. Taste is a principle of itself but does not have a private ability. This means that, though others judgments may not convince us our judgment is wrong, taste is not just based on that which is subjective but is outside simply firsthand experience. Taste cannot be heteronomous but it is the possible

“There is no possibility of thinking of anything at all in this world, or even out of it, which can be regarded as good without qualifications, except a good will.” (Kant, pg.7 393). No other thing that may appear good can be unqualifiedly good, as even “Talents of the mind…Gifts of power…[Other] qualities…Have no intrinsic unconditional worth, but they always presuppose, rather, a good will, which restricts the high esteem in which they are otherwise rightly held.” (Kant, pg.7 393-394). So Immanuel Kant introduces the public to his Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals, which results not in simply a grounding work, but one that is utterly groundbreaking. This opener, wholly devoted to the establishment of the importance of will and intention, notes the guiding characteristics of a good will. As enumerated previously, Kant recognizes the plausible potential positivity of plenty concepts, but remains of the mind that none of these are good in themselves without the efforts of a good will to guide and restrict them in a manner that perpetuates their positivity.

In the Critique of Judgement Kant contrasts the sublime and the beautiful. What it is that is beautiful for us in the beautiful Kant calls Zweckmässigkeit ohne Zweck, 'purposiveness without purpose'. (1) I will explain what I think Kant means by this. The categories of the understanding are organizing principles, they organize the sensory manifold into the usable structures of the world that we move among and employ every day. To find something useful in the world--that is, structured in a way that the organization of the thing suits both our understanding and some need of ours--is pleasurable for us. We enjoy the purposive form of a well-made hammer, for example, because of the use we know we could make of it. In the case of beauty, we identify the same pattern of purposiveness in an object, we recognize and appreciate a principle of organization, one might even say, of thought, in the object, but the object itself has no human use. Something is beautiful, as opposed to

What is beauty? How do we decide who is attractive and who is not? Society is full of information telling us what is beautiful, but what fact is that information based on? The topic of beauty has been studied, analyzed and controversial for centuries. We all know the feeling you can have when you hear a beautiful song that brings joy to your heart, stand in a field of flowers that excites your eyes, or admire a face that is visually pleasing. As human beings, we are all drawn to beauty, but what is it that makes something beautiful? The controversial issue that surrounds beauty is that some believe that true beauty is defined by someone’s outer appearance, while others believe it is something that is experienced through a person’s