The Problem of the Aesthetic Idea in Kant and Hegel: The Relationship between Beauty and Morality
-
Saneyuki Yamatsuta
Abstract
This paper reconstructs the notion of the “aesthetic idea” in Kant’s aesthetics and Hegel’s critique of it. For Kant, the aesthetic idea is a necessary condition of genius and every genuine artwork. However, Kant’s scholarship disputes whether the aesthetic idea necessarily has a connection with the idea of reason, especially the moral idea. If so, Kant’s view of artwork may be a kind of moral didacticism. Hegel, for his part, appreciates Kant’s aesthetic idea as the “reconciliation” of “cleavage (Trennung)”. However, Hegelalso critiques Kant’s notion of the aesthetic idea and his aesthetics as being “subjective”. For Hegel, the idea of beauty is as objective as that of morality, since both ideas are part of the same developmental course of the spirit. Hegelconstructs a necessary connection between the aesthetic and the moral idea, which remains ambiguous in Kant’s aesthetics.
Abstract
This paper reconstructs the notion of the “aesthetic idea” in Kant’s aesthetics and Hegel’s critique of it. For Kant, the aesthetic idea is a necessary condition of genius and every genuine artwork. However, Kant’s scholarship disputes whether the aesthetic idea necessarily has a connection with the idea of reason, especially the moral idea. If so, Kant’s view of artwork may be a kind of moral didacticism. Hegel, for his part, appreciates Kant’s aesthetic idea as the “reconciliation” of “cleavage (Trennung)”. However, Hegelalso critiques Kant’s notion of the aesthetic idea and his aesthetics as being “subjective”. For Hegel, the idea of beauty is as objective as that of morality, since both ideas are part of the same developmental course of the spirit. Hegelconstructs a necessary connection between the aesthetic and the moral idea, which remains ambiguous in Kant’s aesthetics.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Preface 5
- Contents IX
- Abbreviations of Kant’s Works 11
-
Section I: Feelings and Action:Moral and Political Perspectives
- Kant on the Difference between Right and Ethics: Are We Capable of Acting (Solely) from Duty? 3
- Courage vs. Laziness: The Kantian Perspective between Education and Politics 19
- Kant’s Concept of Unsocial Sociability 33
-
Section II: Feelings and Judgements:Scientific and Aesthetical Approaches
- Kant’s Concept of Intensive Magnitude: Anticipating Scientific Experience 49
- Kant’s Hypotyposis as Rhetorical and Poetical Presentation 61
- The Aesthetic Representation of the Supersensible: Reassessing the Space of the Sublime 77
- On the Conceptual Restriction of Aesthetic Judgments 97
- The Heroic, the Pathic, the Barbaric: Kant’s Critique of Judgment and the Sight of War 111
-
Section III: Feelings and Environment Today:From a Kantian Perspective
- Kant and Environmental Ethics, Starting from the Doctrine of Virtue 135
- Shared Commitments and Ethical Values in the UN Agenda 2030 on Sustainable Development Goals: A Kantian Approach towards a Collectively Desirable State of the World 151
- Climate Change and Natural Beauty: Kant’s Aesthetic Moderate Ecocentrism 175
-
Section IV: Feelings and Kant’s Heritage
- “Das Gefühl ist factisch das erste ursprüngliche”: Remarks on the Role of Feeling in Fichte’s Wissenschaftslehre Nova Methodo 195
- The Problem of the Aesthetic Idea in Kant and Hegel: The Relationship between Beauty and Morality 207
- The Regulatory Use of the Ideas of Reason in Kant and Husserl 221
- Feeling and System: The Developments of Kant’s Concept of the Feeling of Pleasure and Displeasure in Hermann Cohen’s Aesthetics 235
- Index of persons
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Preface 5
- Contents IX
- Abbreviations of Kant’s Works 11
-
Section I: Feelings and Action:Moral and Political Perspectives
- Kant on the Difference between Right and Ethics: Are We Capable of Acting (Solely) from Duty? 3
- Courage vs. Laziness: The Kantian Perspective between Education and Politics 19
- Kant’s Concept of Unsocial Sociability 33
-
Section II: Feelings and Judgements:Scientific and Aesthetical Approaches
- Kant’s Concept of Intensive Magnitude: Anticipating Scientific Experience 49
- Kant’s Hypotyposis as Rhetorical and Poetical Presentation 61
- The Aesthetic Representation of the Supersensible: Reassessing the Space of the Sublime 77
- On the Conceptual Restriction of Aesthetic Judgments 97
- The Heroic, the Pathic, the Barbaric: Kant’s Critique of Judgment and the Sight of War 111
-
Section III: Feelings and Environment Today:From a Kantian Perspective
- Kant and Environmental Ethics, Starting from the Doctrine of Virtue 135
- Shared Commitments and Ethical Values in the UN Agenda 2030 on Sustainable Development Goals: A Kantian Approach towards a Collectively Desirable State of the World 151
- Climate Change and Natural Beauty: Kant’s Aesthetic Moderate Ecocentrism 175
-
Section IV: Feelings and Kant’s Heritage
- “Das Gefühl ist factisch das erste ursprüngliche”: Remarks on the Role of Feeling in Fichte’s Wissenschaftslehre Nova Methodo 195
- The Problem of the Aesthetic Idea in Kant and Hegel: The Relationship between Beauty and Morality 207
- The Regulatory Use of the Ideas of Reason in Kant and Husserl 221
- Feeling and System: The Developments of Kant’s Concept of the Feeling of Pleasure and Displeasure in Hermann Cohen’s Aesthetics 235
- Index of persons
