DOCSLIB.ORG

Kant's Concept of Reflective Judgment

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Kant's Concept of Reflective Judgment KANT'S CONCEPT OF REFLECTIVE JUDGMENT Sumangali Rajiva A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Philosophy University of Toronto O Copyright by Sumangali Rajiva 1999 National Library Bibliothbque nationale 1+1 of,,, du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliogaphic Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellirigtori OttawaON KlAON4 OtfawaON K1AW Canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains owoership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels rnay be printed or othewïse de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. ABSTRACT KANT'S CONCEPT OF REFLEC'IWE JUMfMElYT Surnangali Rajiva, Doctor of Philosophy 1999 Graduate Department of Philosophy in the University of Toronto In the Critique of Pure Reason and the Critique of Practical Reason Kant develops models of knowledge and morality in which we know and exist in a world of sensible appearances while dso belonging to a world of transcendent morality. This creates a gulf for us between the world as it is and the world as it ought to be. In the Critique of Judgment Kant develops an account of reflective judgment as taste, whereby the experience of beauty bridges the gap between these two worlds. Evaluating the success of Kant's account requires us first to understand the conditions taste as reflective judgment rnust meet in order to mediate between knowledge and morality and secondly to ask whether it dws meet these conditions. The thesis begins by examining sections of the Critique of Pure Reason and the Critique of Pracfical Reason in order to unearth a Kantian mode1 of the requirements of a successfûl mediator. The discussion then focuses on whether taste as reflective judgment and its concept of purposiveness wîthout purpose meet these requkements. A major challenge ta this is the relationship between reason and taste as reflective judgment; the goal of the discussion is to show that this relationship is not an obstacle to its mediation of knowledge and morality but, instead, that it helps to preserve the autonomy that makes the experience of beauty a bridge between the world as it is and the world as it ought to be. .. II TABLE OF CONTENTS .. ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... 11 REFERENCES TO KANT'S WORKS ............................................................................. iv INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 1 Chapter One Mediation in the Schematism............................................................... 26 Chaprer Two Non-Schematic Mediation in the Use of Pure Theoretical and Pure Prac ticai Reason........................................................................................ -71 ChapterThree Reflective Judgment and the Concept of Purposiveness without Purpose ..................................................................................................... 1 1 1 Chapter Four The Heautonomy of Taste in the Analytic of the Beautifid and the Deduction of Pure Aesthetic Judgments......*........ ...... ........................ 162 Chapter Five The Diaiectic: The Supersensible Substrate and Beauty as the Symbol of Morality ........................................ ......................................................... 2 12 CONCLUSION ................... ,.. ..................................................................................... 244 Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 25 1 References to Kant's Works Al1 English references to the Critique of Judgment are to the translation by Werner S. Pluhar (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1987) and will be cited in the text dong with the page numbers from Volume V of the Akademie Textausgabe in Kant Gesamrnelte Schrifren (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1968). The order of citation will be Akademie pages, sections in the main text, and page number in Pluhar. References to the Firsr Introduction to the Critique of Judgment are to Pluhar's translation in the same volume as his translation of the Critique of Judgment and will be cited as FI followed by the page in Volume XX of the Akademie Textausgabe, sections in the text, and the page nurnber in Pluhar. AI1 English references to the Critique of Pure Reason are to the translation by Norman Kemp Smith, (New York: Saint Martin's Press, 1965, fiom 19291, and will be cited in the text of the paper following the standard A and B references to the fmt and second editions respectively. German references are to Volumes III and IV of the Akademie Textausgabe. Al1 English references to the Critique of frac! ical Reason are to the translation by Lewis White Beck (Indianapolis: Bobbs-MerriII, 1956) and wiil be cited by page number in the text after the page numbers fiom Volume V of the Akademie Textausgabe. All other references to works by Kant will be given in the page notes. INTRODUCTION In Kant's critical philosophy, there are three higher cognitive faculties or powers, understanding, judgment, and reason. The critique of our cognitive powers, fiequently referred to by Kant as the critique of pure reason', investigates and sets limits to what these cognitive powers can achieve a priori, as distinct fiom theü normal, merdy logical and purely formai synthesis of empirical reality. (Ak.176-1 77, sec.111, Pluhar 16) The results of such investigation in the Critique of Pure Remon are the justification of the application of concepts of pure understanding to empirical reality and the correspondhg restriction of such concepts in their theoretical use to empirical use objectively or constitutively; the first Critique also restricts the ideas of pure reason to regufafive theoretical employment, outlining their possible constitutive practical use, and prohibiting their constitutive theoreticai employment. The resdts in the Critique of Pracrical Reason are the systernatic justification of the faculty of pure practical reason as the faculty of mordity whose practical use is objective and constitutive. As a result of both the restrictions placed on pure reason and the role given to it as pure practical reason: ...an immense gulf is fixed between the domain of the concept of nature, the sensibIe, and the domain of the concept of fieedom, the supersensible, so that no transition fiom the sensible to the supersensible (and hence by 'In the third Critique he expressly subdivides the critique of pure teason into critiques, respectively, of pure understanding, pure judgment, and pure reason. means of the theoretical use of reason) is possible, just as if they were two different worlds.... (Ak.175- 176, sec.11, Pluhar 14- 15) Although Kant refers to the gulf between the sensible and the supersensible, this implies other dualities as well. For example, he speaks, in the First Introduction to the third Critique, of judgment mediating between laws of nature and laws of fieedom (FI, Ak.202, sec.11, Pluhar 39 1-392) and between understanding as the faculty of cognition and reason as the faculty of desire (FI, Ak.207-208, sec.111, Pluhar 396). And, given his discussion in section II of the Introduction, it is clear that this connection of nature and fieedom through judgment will also be a connection of appearances and things in themselves, though not a connection that will generate theoretical or practical cognition (Ak.175-1 76, sec.11, PIuhar 14- 15). In the Critique of J'entKant resolves these different dualities through the faculty of judgrnent, just so far as it is independent of understanding as the faculty of knowledge and reason as the faculty of morality but also comected to both. Therefore, I will take as the site of my discussion the general duality between knowledge as invoiving nature, appearances, and the sensible, and morality, as involving freedorn, things in themselves, and the supersensible; the focus of the discussion of mediation will be the respective faculties involved, in their substantial relation to these areas. As a faculty located between reason and understanding logically, judgment should be able to provide us with a pure transcendental mediation between pure reason and pure understanding, by way of a type of judgrnent Kant calls reflective judgment, in contrast to determining judgment, which is not independent of either understanding or reason. 3 Through reflective judgment we are able to think of kedom and nature as united in ourselves aesthetically and in nature teleologically. In contrat to judgment that determines, judgment that reflects has its own principles and its own modus operandi. It has a technical p~cipleof nature, the pnnciple of the purposiveness without purpose of nature, and it operates by organizing the subject rather
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 'The Supreme Principle of Morality'? in the Preface to His Best
    The Supreme Principle of Morality Allen W. Wood 1. What is ‘The Supreme Principle of Morality’? In the Preface to his best known work on moral philosophy, Kant states his purpose very clearly and succinctly: “The present groundwork is, however, nothing more than the search for and establishment of the supreme principle of morality, which already constitutes an enterprise whole in its aim and to be separated from every other moral investigation” (Groundwork 4:392). This paper will deal with the outcome of the first part of this task, namely, Kant’s attempt to formulate the supreme principle of morality, which is the intended outcome of the search. It will consider this formulation in light of Kant’s conception of the historical antecedents of his attempt. Our first task, however, must be to say a little about the meaning of the term ‘supreme principle of morality’. For it is not nearly as evident to many as it was to Kant that there is such a thing at all. And it is extremely common for people, whatever position they may take on this issue, to misunderstand what a ‘supreme principle of morality’ is, what it is for, and what role it is supposed to play in moral theorizing and moral reasoning. Kant never directly presents any argument that there must be such a principle, but he does articulate several considerations that would seem to justify supposing that there is. Kant holds that moral questions are to be decided by reason. Reason, according to Kant, always seeks unity under principles, and ultimately, systematic unity under the fewest possible number of principles (Pure Reason A298-302/B355-359, A645- 650/B673-678).
    [Show full text]
  • JACOBI and FICHTE on PHILOSOPHY and LIFE Rolf Ahlers
    VITALISM AND SYSTEM: JACOBI AND FICHTE ON PHILOSOPHY AND LIFE Rolf Ahlers Abstract: This paper thematizes the crucial agreement and point of depar- ture between Jacobi and Fichte at the height of the “atheism controversy.” The argument on the proper relationship between philosophy and existence or speculation and life had far-reaching consequences in the history of thought after Jacobi and Fichte in German Idealism on the one hand, primarly advo- cated by Schelling and Hegel, and on the other hand by existentialism and vitalism. The essay focuses first on Jacobi’s philosophy of life, which cen- trally influenced and attracted Fichte to Jacobi. Jacobi’s dualism between speculation, of which he was skeptical, and life, became Fichte’s dualism. Fichte’s transcendentalism, however, prioritized, contrary to Jacobi, both speculation and systematicity. Both of these elements became central for later forms of German Idealism. In the last part of the essay Hegel’s absolute idealism becomes the platform affording a critical perspective on Fichte’s transcendental philosophy. The immediacy of life could for Fichte in 1799 not have any reality without the abstraction from life accomplished by speculative philosophy. Both “speculation” and “life” do not really have any common ground between them—a position which Reinhold attempted to find—because both oppose each other but are also dependent upon another. As “life” could not be had without speculation, so “speculation” is impossible without life, for it needs life to be able to abstract from it. Fichte made this very clear at the height of the “atheism-controversy,” in a letter to Jacobi of April 22, 1799,1 in which he says this (1799:61):2 The original duality, which traverses through the whole system of reason, and which is grounded in the duality of the subject-object is here on its highest plateau.
    [Show full text]
  • "The Principle of Punishment Is a Categorical Imperative"
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by UNL | Libraries University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Faculty Publications - Department of Philosophy Philosophy, Department of 1998 "The Principle of Punishment Is a Categorical Imperative" Nelson T. Potter Jr. University of Nebraska - Lincoln, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/philosfacpub Part of the Continental Philosophy Commons, and the Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons Potter, Nelson T. Jr., ""The Principle of Punishment Is a Categorical Imperative"" (1998). Faculty Publications - Department of Philosophy. 22. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/philosfacpub/22 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Philosophy, Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications - Department of Philosophy by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Potter in Autonomy and Community: Readings in Contemporary Kantian Social Philosophy (J. Kneller & S. Axinn, eds.). Section II. Kant and Contemporary Social Issues. Copyright 1998, SUNY Press. Used by permission. 9------ Nelson Thomas Potter Jr. UThe Principle ofPunuhment Id a 1 Categorical Imperatire 77 KANT'S VIEWS There has been a considerable renaissance in retributivism as a theory of the justification of punishment in the second half of this century. Retributivism is often defended
    [Show full text]
  • 'Until Art Once More Becomes Nature': Culture and the Problem Of
    Sabina Vaccarino Bremner 1 Forthcoming in Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie. Please cite published version. ‘Until Art Once More Becomes Nature’: Culture and the Problem of Unity in Kant’s Critique of Judgment1 I In the Introduction to the Critique of Judgment (KU),2 Kant claims that his first two Critiques have left a problem unresolved: while the first Critique successfully showed that the coexistence of the sensible and supersensible domains can be conceived without con- tradiction and the second Critique that the supersensible can have practical reality, these conclusions have left open an “incalculable gulf” between the domain of nature and the domain of freedom (5:175). The first two Critiques left a point of tension by concluding both that theoretical cognition of the sensible world cannot be extended to the supersensi- ble, “just as if there were so many different worlds”, and that the supersensible “should have an influence on the [sensible]: namely the concept of freedom should make the end that is imposed by its laws real in the sensible world” (5:176). The possibility of the supersensible’s effect on the sensible must therefore inform our theoretical cognition of nature: the “law- fulness” in nature’s form must be conceived as “at least in agreement with the possibility of the ends that are to be realized in it in accordance with the laws of freedom” (5:176). Kant situates the project of the Third Critique as offering a response to this problem, showing how the power of judgment can think the “unity” of or “transition”
    [Show full text]
  • The Critique of Judgment
    Properly, therefore, it was understanding-which, so far as The Critique of Judgment it contains constitutive a priori cognitive principles, has First Part — Critique of its special realm, and one, moreover, in our faculty of knowledge-that the Critique, called in a general way that Aesthetic Judgment of pure reason was intended to establish in secure but particular possession against all other competitors. In the Immanuel Kant same way reason, which contains constitutive a priori 1790. Translation, James Creed Meredith, Kant’s principles solely in respect of the faculty of desire, gets its Critique of Aesthetic Judgment, 1911, Oxford: holding assigned to it by The Critique of Practical Clarendon Press (“Second Part — Critique of Reason. Teleological Judgment,” published in 1928; first and But now comes judgement, which in the order of our second parts published in 1952, with the above title; cognitive faculties forms a middle term between original footnotes included selectively) understanding and reason. Has it also got independent a priori principles? If so, are they constitutive, or are they merely regulative, thus indicating no special realm? And Preface to the First Edition 1790 do they give a rule a priori to the feeling of pleasure and displeasure, as the middle term between the faculties of The faculty of knowledge from a priori principles may be cognition and desire, just as understanding prescribes called pure reason, and the general investigation into its laws a priori for the former and reason for the latter? This possibility and bounds the Critique of Pure Reason. This is the topic to which the present Critique is devoted.
    [Show full text]
  • Animals in the Kingdom of Ends
    25 Animals in the Kingdom of Ends Heather M. Kendrick Department of Philosophy and Religion Central Michigan University [email protected] Abstract Kant claimed that human beings have no duties to animals because they are not autonomous ends in themselves. I argue that Kant was wrong to exclude animals from the realm of moral consideration. Animals, although they do not set their own ends and thus cannot be regarded as ends in themselves, do have ends that are given to them by nature. As beings with ends, they stand between mere things that have no ends, and rational beings that are ends in themselves. I propose a broader version of Kant's kingdom of ends, in which rational beings respect the ends of all other beings that have them, including animals. The moral status of animals would still be dependent on the existence of rational beings, but our duty to take their ends into account would be a direct duty to them, rather than being a covert duty to human beings. Introduction Immanuel Kant holds that we have no duties to animals, because they are not ends in themselves, that is, autonomous beings of intrinsic value. Instead, we have indirect duties with regard to them. We ought not treat them cruelly, as it damages our natural sympathies and thus can harden us in our dealings with other human beings. He uses the example of a man who has his dog shot when the animal is no longer of service; this is not a violation of any duty to the dog, but of his duty to cultivate “the kindly and humane qualities in himself, which he ought to exercise in virtue of his duties to mankind” (Kant 1997b 27:459).
    [Show full text]
  • Kant, Neo-Kantianism, and Phenomenology Sebastian Luft Marquette University, [email protected]
    Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications Philosophy, Department of 7-1-2018 Kant, Neo-Kantianism, and Phenomenology Sebastian Luft Marquette University, [email protected] Published version. Oxford Handbook of the History of Phenomenology (07/18). DOI. © 2018 Oxford University Press. Used with permission. Kant, Neo-Kantianism, and Phenomenology Kant, Neo-Kantianism, and Phenomenology Sebastian Luft The Oxford Handbook of the History of Phenomenology Edited by Dan Zahavi Print Publication Date: Jun 2018 Subject: Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, History of Western Philosophy (Post-Classical) Online Publication Date: Jul 2018 DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198755340.013.5 Abstract and Keywords This chapter offers a reassessment of the relationship between Kant, the Kantian tradi­ tion, and phenomenology, here focusing mainly on Husserl and Heidegger. Part of this re­ assessment concerns those philosophers who, during the lives of Husserl and Heidegger, sought to defend an updated version of Kant’s philosophy, the neo-Kantians. The chapter shows where the phenomenologists were able to benefit from some of the insights on the part of Kant and the neo-Kantians, but also clearly points to the differences. The aim of this chapter is to offer a fair evaluation of the relation of the main phenomenologists to Kant and to what was at the time the most powerful philosophical movement in Europe. Keywords: Immanuel Kant, neo-Kantianism, Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Marburg School of neo-Kantian­ ism 3.1 Introduction THE relation between phenomenology, Kant, and Kantian philosophizing broadly con­ strued (historically and systematically), has been a mainstay in phenomenological re­ search.1 This mutual testing of both philosophies is hardly surprising given phenomenology’s promise to provide a wholly novel type of philosophy.
    [Show full text]
  • The Critique of Judgment Summary
    The Critique Of Judgment Summary Excaudate Hayward teazles his slump pervades elsewhere. Douglas speed-ups her unloadings taxonomically, dumpy and incantatory. Ringless Davidde paraffin no behind scheduling gushingly after Thebault laze conversationally, quite surface-active. Summariesfocus only on ideas contained within plain text. Moreover, another significant relate to general aesthetic theory took that which attempted to apply aesthetic theory between various forms of sign, but also aspects of sensible by nature that self the objects of sciences such as psychology. Cpr shows that there are entirely independent faculty, we call sublime is that our ability, judgment summary and so. In Summary: Diagnostic tools can attract very elaborate in assisting people in healing and becoming healthier. For writing, there only be no exception less moral rules other visit the principle of utility. Identify the science, is not recommend that judgment the critique of summary is found to. The judgment summary views on topic sentences so understood through it is a summary, he explores in! Deduction of ink more generally, Prior Analytics, so there read no presumption of similar thing represented having an actual purpose. All mankind must framework the availability of its object before our ability to premises it. Whatever benefit a price can be replaced by something severe as its equivalent; on with other hand, namely, but issue different sides of our cognitive apparatus. Kant illustrates with experience example target the tree. As revive, the legal victory will be soas well. Judgement Kant explores in is art and taste extends over a crunch of paths! Had scoliosis, views and culture.
    [Show full text]
  • Kant's Ethics
    Kant's ethics Quick reminder About Kant Goods Kant's ethics Hypothetical and categorical imperatives Using the CI Objections Thursday, April 23, 2009 Quick reminder Kant's ethics Quick reminder About Kant Goods Hypothetical and Papers are due tomorrow! categorical imperatives Using the CI Objections Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) Kant's ethics Quick reminder About Kant K¨onigsburg,Prussia Goods Hypothetical (now Kaliningrad, Russia) and categorical Enlightenment philosophy imperatives Using the CI Grundlagen der Objections Metaphysik der Sitten Groundwork for the metaphysics of morals Talents and temperament Ex: Intelligence, courage Subjective states and feelings Ex: Happiness, pleasure Choice and reasons for action Ex: hPay your taxes before they're due to avoid going to jail.i Also called rules, principles, intentions, maxims, and imperatives Three kinds of goods Kant's ethics Goods Quick reminder Things with at least some (positive) moral significance or value About Kant Goods Analysis of goods Anti- consequentialism Hypothetical and categorical imperatives Using the CI Objections Subjective states and feelings Ex: Happiness, pleasure Choice and reasons for action Ex: hPay your taxes before they're due to avoid going to jail.i Also called rules, principles, intentions, maxims, and imperatives Three kinds of goods Kant's ethics Goods Quick reminder Things with at least some (positive) moral significance or value About Kant Goods Analysis of goods Anti- Talents and temperament Ex: Intelligence, courage consequentialism Hypothetical and categorical
    [Show full text]
  • Critique of Judgment PHI 502: Spring 2017
    Critique of Judgment PHI 502: Spring 2017 Instructor Information: Course information: Instructor: Des Hogan Seminar time and location: Office: 206 Marx Hall Friday 10-12:50, Marx 201 Phone: 258-4295 Email: [email protected] Description: A study of Kant’s Critique of Judgment (1790). Our topics will include Kant’s motivations for a critique of judgment; principles of ‘reflective’ and ‘determining’ judgment; theory of aesthetic judgment, including epistemology and metaphysics of the beautiful and sublime; theory of genius; teleology in the critical philosophy—including harmony of the cognitive faculties, organisms, scope and limits of mechanical explanation, physico- and ethico-theology; the relation of ethics, aesthetics and teleology. A basic familiarity with Kant’s theoretical philosophy is presupposed. Required text: Immanuel Kant, Critique of the Power of Judgment (Cited as KU by Akademie pagination, volume and page number, e.g. KU Ak. 5:200) I recommend the translation by Guyer and Matthews in the Cambridge University Press edition of Kant’s works (New York: CUP 2000. Paperback ISBN 0-521-34892-7) Other primary texts: Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason Kant, Critique of Practical Reason Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals Kant, Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime Kant, On the Use of Teleological Principles in Philosophy Reading Schedule: Below I append a suggested reading schedule for working through the main text. (The bracketed pagination refers to the Guyer/Matthews translation.) Additional primary and secondary readings will be made available on Blackboard as we proceed. We will be joined later in the semester by Professor Thomas Teufel (Baruch College/CUNY Graduate Center), who will lead a session on Kant and teleology.
    [Show full text]
  • Schopenhauer on the Values of Aesthetic Experience
    Schopenhauer on the Values of Aesthetic Experience The Southern Journal of Philosophy (2007) Vol. XLV Schopenhauer on the Values of Aesthetic Experience Bart Vandenabeele Ghent University (Belgium) Abstract In this essay, I argue that Schopenhauer’s view of the aesthetic feelings of the beautiful and the sublime shows how a “dialectical” interpre- tation that homogenizes both aesthetic concepts and reduces the discrepancy between both to merely quantitative differences is flawed. My critical analysis reveals a number of important tensions in both Schopenhauer’s own aesthetic theory—which does not ultimately succeed in “merging” Plato’s and Kant’s approaches—and the interpretation that unjustly reduces the value of aesthetic experience to a merely preliminary stage of ethical will-less salvation. Art does not hurt us. The tears that we shed at a play are a type of the exquisite sterile emotions that it is the function of art to awaken. We weep, but we are not wounded. Oscar Wilde The Critic as Artist In the traditional interpretation of Schopenhauer’s aesthetic theory, the thought prevails that aesthetic pleasure is rooted in the subject’s release from the claws of the blind will and that such a (negative) feeling of relief forms a preparation to the Bart Vandenabeele is Professor of Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art at Ghent University (Belgium). He is the author and editor of several books in aesthetics, philosophy of art, and philosophy of culture. He has published several contributions in books and international journals on aesthetics, the history of philosophy, and the philosophy of language in English, German, Portuguese, and Dutch.
    [Show full text]
  • Hegel's View on Fichte's Aesthetical Conception
    Hegel’s View on Fichte’s Aesthetical Conception Marica Rajković University of Novi Sad, Serbia ABSTRACT: Hegel’s relation towards Fichte’s aesthetic conception can be clarified through three distinct perspectives. The first one examines the relation to the consequences of Kant’s aesthetic position, and it indirectly deals with Fichte’s role in these consequences to German idealism. The second one discusses Hegel’s critique of Fichte’s philosophy in general, from which it is possible to deduce his relationship towards the aesthetic phenomena in his philosophy. The third way examines the rare and sporadic topics in Hegel’s philosophical writings which directly reflect on Fichte’s aesthetic views. The author will try to combine all three of these perspectives and to provide a comprehensive insight into Hegel’s relation towards Fichte’s aesthetic position. Finally, it will be demonstrated that Fichte’s philosophy remains significant by the fact that it abolishes the dualism of Kant’s philosophy and provides the foundation for Hegel’s conception, in which the aesthetic field takes an important position. KEYWORDS: Aesthetics, Art, Fichte, German Idealism, Hegel. 1. Fichte’s contribution to the development of Aesthetics A very few number of authors have engaged in thematisation of aesthetics within Fichte’s philosophical system. Aestheticians mostly do not consider Fichte as one of the authors who directly contributes to aesthetics as a science, while Fichte’s interpreters usually do not consider significant several of his unsystematic treatises on aesthetics. Therefore, fundamental thematization of aesthetical problem in Fichte’s philosophy remains a very isolated phenomenon. One of the first serious studies on this subject is considered to be the work titled L’estetica dell’idealismo tedesco, that Luigi Pareyson published in 1950, and whose chapter on Fichte was later1 separately published as L’Estetica di Fichte2.
    [Show full text]