What I love about Kant is that he constantly forces us to twist our expectations.
For instance, in the Critique of Judgment, beauty involve a relationship between the feeling of pleasure and a judgment. What direction does that relation flow? Do we have a feeling of pleasure and then judge something to be beautiful? Or, do we judge something to be beautiful and then have a feeling of pleasure?
Our intuition would be that we experience the pleasure of observing a masterful work of art. Then we assert: that work of art is beautiful! But Kant flips this on its head.
He argues that assertions about beauty presuppose a universal voice - we don't mean simple that the work of art is agreeable to my sentiments. We mean that is should be agreeable to yours as well.
Thus, if we buy into Kant's account of beauty, no feeling of pleasure can provide a ground to leap towards a judgment of beauty. In judgments of beauty, then, the relation must flow from the judgment to the feeling of pleasure. What an odd thing to say!
For instance, in the Critique of Judgment, beauty involve a relationship between the feeling of pleasure and a judgment. What direction does that relation flow? Do we have a feeling of pleasure and then judge something to be beautiful? Or, do we judge something to be beautiful and then have a feeling of pleasure?
Our intuition would be that we experience the pleasure of observing a masterful work of art. Then we assert: that work of art is beautiful! But Kant flips this on its head.
He argues that assertions about beauty presuppose a universal voice - we don't mean simple that the work of art is agreeable to my sentiments. We mean that is should be agreeable to yours as well.
"If one calls the object beautiful, one believes oneself to have a universal voice, and lays claim to the consent of everyone, whereas any private sensation would be decisive only for him alone and his satisfaction" (5:126).
Thus, if we buy into Kant's account of beauty, no feeling of pleasure can provide a ground to leap towards a judgment of beauty. In judgments of beauty, then, the relation must flow from the judgment to the feeling of pleasure. What an odd thing to say!
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