UC Riverside UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Reading Kant’s Third Critique: What the Beautiful Can Teach Us About Judgment Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8p15d8ch Author Cressotti, Josef Publication Date 2017 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Reading Kant’s Third Critique: What the Beautiful Can Teach Us About Judgment A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy by Josef Nicholas Cressotti March 2017 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Pierre Keller, Chairperson Dr. Larry Wright Dr. Andrews Reath Dr. Erich Reck The Dissertation of Josef Nicholas Cressotti is approved: Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My dissertation was written over a period of eight years or so, beginning in the summer of 2009. In that time, I have been aided by many people, especially at the University of California, Riverside. I would like to thank the following individuals in particular. My principal thanks goes to the chair of my committee, Pierre Keller, who supervised my work with dedication and generosity. I could not have asked for a more careful reader nor one more willing to engage in discussion and take my ideas seriously. Without Pierre’s assistance, my dissertation would be much less clear, coherent, and, I think, interesting. I am especially grateful for Pierre’s patience and understanding as I struggled to come to terms with a difficult philosopher but one he knows so well. Thanks also goes to Larry Wright, who supported and encouraged me from the very beginning. Larry too has been an extremely careful reader of my work. He has given generously of his time and inspired me through many stimulating conversations. I have been fortunate to be part of his long-running Wittgenstein Reading Group, which has influenced my reading of Kant and my thinking about judgment. Andy Reath and Erich Reck, the two other members of my dissertation committee, have been wonderfully supportive of my project. They read and commented on my work whenever I asked them. Their critical feedback has been very helpful to me. Altogether I could not have asked for a better dissertation committee. iii My friend, Robert Sanchez, deserves many thanks for reading parts of my dissertation at different stages. I thank him for his encouragement, example, and participation in my defense. I am especially grateful to the Graduate Division of UCR, who supported my work through a Dissertation Fellowship in 2010. I am also grateful to the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) for their generous fellowship, which enabled me to work on my dissertation in Munich for the school year of 2010 – 2011. My understanding of Kant and his Critique of Judgment in particular was significantly improved by Günter Zöller, who graciously welcomed me into his seminar at Ludwig- Maximilians-Universität and took an interest in my work. To Saint Sebastian’s School in Needham, Massachusetts I owe a debt of gratitude for their loving support of my intellectual pursuits while teaching at the school. In particular, I thank the school for its financial assistance in my dissertation defense. To my parents and siblings I owe thanks for their ongoing support and belief in me. I thank them also for their patience and understanding when my work made me less charitable and dutiful than I should have been. Lastly, I want to thank my dear aunt, Sr. Jane Morrissey, S.S.J., for her continual support of me and my work. With the breadth of her learning and command of English grammar, she provided a critical eye in reading parts of my dissertation. More importantly she strengthened my conviction that our experience of the beautiful has deep philosophical significance and that Dostoevsky was on to something when he wrote that “beauty would save the world.” iv Dispersit superbos mente cordis sui. To my parents, Frank and Anne Cressotti, who have helped me to see the beautiful in art and nature. v ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Reading Kant’s Third Critique: What the Beautiful Can Teach Us About Judgment by Josef Nicholas Cressotti Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in Philosophy University of California, Riverside, March 2017 Dr. Pierre Keller, Chairperson In the Critique of Judgment, Kant argues that judgment, our faculty for thinking particulars under universals, is governed by what he calls the “principle of purposiveness.” This principle states that we must look at the world as if it were made for our faculty of cognition. The purpose of this principle is not merely that we increase the systematicity of our knowledge, but that we achieve our highest end as rational agents. For Kant, this is the realization of a world in which happiness perfectly accords with morality. Ultimately, all of our activity—including our theoretical scientific pursuits—is directed toward this end. Poor judgment is not a matter of representing something that fails to correspond with the way the world is independent of our point of view. Rather, poor judgment consists in our engaging in the world in such a way that we fail to notice its relevance to any of the ends a human being could justifiably pursue for the sake of our ultimate end. To improve our judgment, we must learn to free ourselves from our vi particular, and often private, ends in order to see the full significance of objects. This principle of purposiveness is best illustrated by our judgments of taste, which we cannot justify on the basis of articulable rules. Careful analysis of these judgments shows how we must rely on a fundamental capacity to determine what is significant to other points of view, what Kant calls the “common sense.” The normativity of this faculty comes from our shared commitment to the highest end of reason, which compels us to consider how other people see the world. It finds its fulfillment not in our thinking something true about an object but in our taking pleasure in an object that is universally shareable. This experience is made possible not through the perfection of our faculty of cognition, but, as Kant says, “the way of thinking needed to make a purposive use of it.” This “broad- mindedness,” so apparent in our evaluations of beauty in art and nature, is equally necessary for sound theoretical and practical judgment. vii Table of Contents Introduction........................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: The Principle of Purposiveness I. An Unfathomable Gap....................................................................................................13 II. Bridging the Gap...........................................................................................................24 III. The Faculty of Judgment.............................................................................................28 IV. Determining vs. Reflective Judgment..........................................................................32 V. The Principle of Purposiveness.....................................................................................35 VI. Creating a System of Experience.................................................................................42 VII. Conclusion..................................................................................................................50 Chapter 2: Aesthetic Experience I. Searching for a Principle of Judgment...........................................................................53 II. Aesthetic Judgments......................................................................................................58 III. The Faculty of Feeling Pleasure and Displeasure........................................................60 IV. Our Representation of Purposiveness in Aesthetic Experience...................................71 V. Conclusion.....................................................................................................................82 Chapter 3: Abstracting from Interests I. An Analysis of the Beautiful...........................................................................................86 II. Treating Judgments of Taste as a Kind of Act...............................................................96 III. The Young Poet..........................................................................................................106 IV. Judging in Accordance with the Common Sense.......................................................111 V. Conclusion...................................................................................................................116 viii Chapter 4: The Need for Examples I. The Purpose of Judgment-Talk.....................................................................................120 II. A Subjective Source of Disagreement.........................................................................131 III. The Impact of Examples on Our Judgment...............................................................143 IV. Conclusion..................................................................................................................154 Chapter 5: Representational Views of Judgment I. Explaining Judgments of Taste.....................................................................................157 II. The Key to the Critique of Taste.................................................................................161