Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T07:12:50.834Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Beauty as the Symbol of Morality: A Twofold Duty in Kant’s Theory of Taste

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 March 2018

WEIJIA WANG
WEIJIA WANG*
Affiliation:
University of Leuven
*
*<[email protected]>
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In the third Critique, Kant claims that beauty is the symbol of morality and that the consideration of this relation is a duty. This paper declares Kant’s argument to be twofold: firstly, experience of beauty strengthens our moral feeling. Secondly, in judging the beautiful, we assume some indeterminate purpose underlying nature, based on which we can conceive of nature as cooperative with our practical pursuit. Hence, for the sake of moral cultivation and moral motivation, it is our duty to regard beauty as the special symbol of morality.

Dans la troisième Critique, Kant prétend que la beauté est le symbole de la moralité et que la réflexion sur cette relation est un devoir. Cet article présente l’argument de Kant comme un double argument. Premièrement, l’expérience de la beauté renforce notre sentiment moral. Deuxièmement, à travers le jugement sur le beau, nous supposons que la nature poursuit des fins indéterminées, sur la base de quoi l’on pourrait concevoir que la nature coopère à nos fins pratiques. Ainsi, dans l’intérêt de la culture morale et de la motivation morale, il est nécessaire de traiter la beauté comme le symbole spécial de la moralité.

Keywords

Kantbeautysymboldutymoral cultivationmoral motivationintellectual interest
Type
Original Article/Article original
Information
Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review / Revue canadienne de philosophie , Volume 57 , Issue 4 , December 2018 , pp. 853 - 875
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allison, Henry E. 2001 Kant’s Theory of Taste: A Reading of the Critique of Aesthetic Judgment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crawford, Donald W. 1974 Kant’s Aesthetic Theory. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Düsing, Klaus 1990 “Beauty as the Transition from Nature to Freedom in Kant’s Critique of Judgment.” Noûs 24 (1): 79–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gadamer, Hans-Georg 1986 “Intuition and Vividness,” in The Relevance of the Beautiful and Other Essays, edited by Bernasconi, Robert, translated by Tate, Dan. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 157–170.Google Scholar
Gadamer, Hans-Georg 2003 Truth and Method (Second, Revised Edition), translated by Weinsheimer, Joel and Marshall, Donald G.. New York: Continuum.Google Scholar
Goodreau, John R. 1998 The Role of the Sublime in Kant’s Moral Metaphysics. Washington: The Council for Research in Values & Philosophy.Google Scholar
Guyer, Paul 1997 Kant and the Claims of Taste (Second Edition). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Guyer, Paul 1998 “The Symbols of Freedom in Kant’s Aesthetics,” in Kant’s Aesthetics, edited by Parret, Herman. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, pp. 338–355.Google Scholar
Hume, David 1995 Four Dissertations. Bristol: Thoemmes Press.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel 1987 Critique of Judgment. Translated by Pluhar, Werner S.. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel 1996a “Critique of Practical Reason,” in Practical Philosophy, edited and translated by Gregor, Mary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 133–271.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel 1996b “The Metaphysics of Morals,” in Practical Philosophy, edited and translated by Gregor, Mary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 353–452.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel 1998 Critique of Pure Reason. Edited and translated by Guyer, Paul and Wood, Allen. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kant, Immanuel 2000 Critique of the Power of Judgment. Edited by Guyer, Paul, translated by Guyer, Paul and Matthews, Eric. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kant, Immanuel 2004a “Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics That Will Be Able to Come Forward as Science,” in Theoretical Philosophy after 1781, edited by Allison, Henry and Heath, Peter; translated by Hatfield, Gay, Friedman, Michael, Allison, Henry, and Hearth, Peter. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 29–169.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel 2004b “What Real Progress has Metaphysics Made in Germany Since the Time of Leibniz and Wolff?,” in Theoretical Philosophy after 1781, edited by Allison, Henry and Heath, Peter; translated by Hatfield, Gay, Friedman, Michael, Allison, Henry, and Hearth, Peter. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 337–424.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel 2007 “Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View,” in Anthropology, History & Education, edited by Zöller, Gunter and Louden, Robert B.; translated by Louden, Robert B.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 227–429.Google Scholar
Kemal, Salim 1998 “The Practical Postulates of Freedom and Beauty as a Symbol of Morality,” in Kant’s Aesthetics, edited by Parret, Herman. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, pp. 356–373.Google Scholar
Krämling, Gerhard 1985 Die systembildende Rolle von Ästhetik und Kulturphilosophie bei Kant. München: Verlag Karl Alber.Google Scholar
Munzel, G. Felicitas 1995 “‘The Beautiful is the Symbol of the Morally Good’: Kant’s Philosophical Basis of Proof for the Idea of the Morally-Good.” Journal of the History of Philosophy 33 (2): 301–329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neumann, Karl 1973 Gegenständlichkeit und Existenzbedeutung des Schönen: Untersuchungen zu Kants Kritik der ästhetischen Urteilskraft. Bonn: Bouvier Verlag Herbert Grundmann.Google Scholar
Ostaric, Lara 2010 “Works of Genius as Sensible Exhibitions of the Idea of the Highest Good.” Kant-Studien 101 (1): 22–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Recki, Birgit 2001 Ästhetik der Sitten: Die Affinität von ästhetischem Gefühl und praktischer Vernunft bei Kant. Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann.Google Scholar
Wenzel, Christian Helmut 2005 An Introduction to Kant’s Aesthetics: Core Concepts and Problems. Malden, Oxford, Carlton: Blackwell Publishing.CrossRefGoogle Scholar