The Politics of Beauty: A Study of Kant's Critique of Taste

Description

This Element examines the entirety of Kant's Critique of Taste (in Part One of the Critique of Judgment) with particular emphasis on its political and moral aims. Kant's critical treatment of aesthetic judgment is both an extended theoretical response to influential predecessors and contemporaries, including Rousseau and Herder, and a practical intervention in its own right meant to nudge history forward at a time of civilizational crisis. Attention to these themes helps resolve a number of puzzles, both textual and philosophic, including the normative force and meaning of judgments of taste, and the relation between natural and artful beauty. Cover Title page Copyright page The Politics Of Beauty Contents 1 Introduction: Reflection and Revolution 2 The Elements of Beauty 2.1 The Four “Moments” of Taste 2.2 The Deduction of Pure Aesthetic Judgments 2.3 Interest in the BeautifulIf 3 Artistic Beauty 3.1 Genius, Taste, and Spirit 3.2 The King’s Speech 4 Rhetoric and the Antinomy of Taste 4.1 Rhetoric and Poetry 4.2 The “Antinomy of Taste” 4.3 Semblance and Deception 5 The Politics of Beauty 5.1 Beauty as Symbol 5.2 The King’s Speech Revisited 5.3 The “Modus” of Taste 5.4 Beyond the Politics of Taste 6 Summary and Conclusion References Acknowledgments