Kant finds nothing ugly?

British Journal of Aesthetics

Volumn 39, Issue 4, 1999, Pages 416-421

  Wenzel, Christian ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 63149111453     PISSN: 00070904     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/bjaesthetics/39.4.416     Document Type: Article

References (11)

1. David Shier, 'Why Kant Finds Nothing Ugly', British Journal of Aesthetics, vol. 38, no. 4 (October 1998), pp. 412-418. Subsequent page references are given in the text.
2. A quite similar claim and argument has been made by Reinhard Brandt in his article 'Zur Logik des ästhetischen Urteils', in Herman Parret (ed.), Kants Ästhetik, Kant's Aesthetics, L'esthétique de Kant (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1998), pp. 229-245, see especially pp. 239-241. My criticism applies to this article as well.
3. Garrett Thomson claims in his article 'Kant's Problems with Ugliness' (Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, vol. 50, no. 2 [Spring 1992], pp. 107-115) that 'Kant fails in his avowed claim of bridging the moral and the natural realms. Ugliness precludes phenomenalized morality' (p. 114).
4. But there are several misunderstandings in his arguments, some of which have been pointed out already by Paul Guyer in his comment 'Thomson's Problems with Kant: A Comment on "Kant's Problems with Ugliness"', Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, vol. 50, no. 4 (Fall 1992), pp. 317-319.
5. There are two articles arguing in favour of negative judgements of taste, i.e. that they do fit well into Kant's aesthetics: Hud Hudson, 'The Significance of an Analytic of the Ugly in Kant's Deduction of Pure Judgments of Taste', in Ralf Meerbote (ed.), Kant's Aesthetics (California: Ridgeview, 1991), North American Kant Society Studies in Philosophy, vol. 1, pp. 87-103;
6. and Dieter Lohmar, 'Das Geschmacksurteil über das faszinierend Hässliche', in Kants Ästhetik, pp. 498-512.
7. Immanuel Kant, Theorctical Philosophy, 1755-1770, trans. and David Walford and Ralf Meerbote (Cambridge: Cambridge U.P., 1992). The page numbers of the Akademie Ausgabe (AA) edition are indicated in the margin of the English edition by Walford and Meerbote; I refer to these page numbers, and follow their translation.
8. Christian Strub draws attention to these three Reflections in his detailed and informative article 'Das Hässliche und die "Kritik der ästhetischen Urteilskraft". Überlegungen zu einer systematischen Luke', in Kant-Studien, vol. 80 (1989), pp. 416-46, see pp. 416, 421.
9. But I find this contrary to what we often observe when we find something ugly: we indeed find ourselves often fascinated by something ugly, as has already been pointed out by Lohmar ('Das Geschmacksurteil', p. 506). Instead, Strub claims that imagination and understanding engage in free play independently of each other. 'Es muss... ein freies Einzelspiel von Einbildungskraft und Verstand vorausgesetzt werden' (p. 436); compare also:
10. Die Erkenntniskräfte Anschauung/Einbildungskraft und Verstand spielen zunächst nicht miteinander, sondern für sich, selbständig' (p. 429). I think this construction of imagination and understanding playing independently of each other is not necessary for a justification of negative judgements of taste and their claim to subjective universal validity.
11. Immanuel Kant, Critique of Judgment, trans. Werner S. Pluhar (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1987), p. 211. The page numbers refer to the Akademie Ausgabe edition which are also indicated in Pluhar's translation. I follow Pluhar's translation.