The Critique of Judgment and the Unity of Kant's Critical System

Argues that Kant's seminal Critique of Judgment is properly understood as completing his critical system.

Lara Ostaric (Author)

9781009336857, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 10 August 2023

320 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.595 kg

'Ostaric's book presents a master class in Kant. Drawing widely from across Kant's corpus, she presents a compelling interpretation of the unity of the third Critique through a novel examination of how the text answers the demand for reality to conform to our moral aims. This book is an important resource for anyone interested in understanding Kant's system, the unity of reason, and the third Critique in particular.' Kristi Sweet, Texas A&M University

In this book, Lara Ostaric argues that Kant's seminal Critique of Judgment is properly understood as completing his Critical system. The two seemingly disparate halves of the text are unified under this larger project insofar as both aesthetic and teleological judgment indirectly exhibit the final end of reason, the Ideas of the highest good and the postulates, as if obtaining in nature. She relates Kant's discussion of aesthetic and teleological judgment to important yet under-explored concepts in his philosophy, and helps the reader to recognize the relevance of his aesthetics and teleology for our understanding of fine arts and genius, the possibility of pure judgments of ugliness, Kant's philosophy of history, his philosophy of religion, and his conception of autonomy. Ostaric's novel and thoroughly integrative presentation of Kant's system will be of interest not only to Kant scholars but also to those working in religious studies, art history, political theory, and intellectual history.

Part I. The Highest Good and the Postulates: 1. Kant's justification of the 'fact of reason' and the objective reality of freedom from a 'practical point of view'
2. 'The highest good and the realism of moral Glaube
3. Reflective judgment and the realism of the 'moral image'
Part II. Aesthetic Judgment and the 'Moral Image'
4. Beauty as a symbol of morality: the 'moral image' of the 'supersensible without'
5. The free harmony of the faculties and the primacy of imagination in Kant's aesthetic judgment: the 'moral image' of the 'supersensible within'
6. Genius, ugliness, and nonsense: Kant on the purity of the ugly and the failure of the artist's power of judgement
Part III. Teleological Judgment and the 'Moral Image': 7. Kant's account of nature's systematicity and the unity of theoretical and practical reason
8. Organisms as 'natural ends' and reflective judgment's 'image' of externalized freedom
9. Kant's teleological philosophy of history.

Subject Areas: Western philosophy: c 1600 to c 1900 [HPCD]