The Origins of Kant's Aesthetics

Organized around eight themes that are relevant to aesthetic theory, this book examines the sources and development of Kant's aesthetics.

Robert R. Clewis (Author)

9781009209434, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 12 September 2024

280 pages
22.8 x 15.1 x 1.5 cm, 0.42 kg

'An exemplary work of Kant scholarship and research prowess, plumbing Kant's pre-Critical and Critical corpus, spanning the breadth of his published writing, correspondence, university lectures, marginalia, and handwritten notes (Reflexionen) … It will be of enormous interest to scholars and students of Kant's theoretical philosophy in general and Kant's aesthetics in particular, though, given Clewis's accessible writing, it will also duly service art historians and art critics interested in the genetic history of aesthetic judgement.' Ekin Erkan, Estetika

Organized around eight themes central to aesthetic theory today, this book examines the sources and development of Kant's aesthetics by mining his publications, correspondence, handwritten notes, and university lectures. Each chapter explores one of eight themes: aesthetic judgment and normativity, formal beauty, partly conceptual beauty, artistic creativity or genius, the fine arts, the sublime, ugliness and disgust, and humor. Robert R. Clewis considers how Kant's thought was shaped by authors such as Christian Wolff, Alexander Baumgarten, Georg Meier, Moses Mendelssohn, Johann Sulzer, Johann Herder, Francis Hutcheson, David Hume, Edmund Burke, Henry Home, Charles Batteux, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Voltaire. His resulting study uncovers and illuminates the complex development of Kant's aesthetic theory and will be useful to advanced students and scholars in fields across the humanities and studies of the arts.

Introduction
Part I. Aesthetic Judgment and Beauty: 1. On Rules of Taste
2. Beauty Free
3. Beauty Grounded
Part II. Genius and the Fine Arts: 4. Genius, Thick and Thin
5. Classifying the Fine Arts
Part III. Negative and Positive States: 6. Meet the Sublime Now: It's a Negative Pleasure
7. Ugliness and Disgust: Disagreeable Sensations
8 Playing with Humor
Closing Reflections.

Subject Areas: Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ], Philosophy: aesthetics [HPN], History of Western philosophy [HPC]