How to Become a Good Artist – Kant on Humaniora and the ‘Propaedeutic for All Beautiful Art’
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Larissa Berger
Abstract
In § 60 of the Critique of Judgment, entitled ‘On the doctrine of method of taste,’ Kant suggests that the study of so-called humaniora (ancient Roman and Greek literature) will help one to become a good artist. I will argue that a proper, namely emotional, engagement with humaniora will further the two components of humanity in ourselves: the feeling of sympathy and the ability to communicate feelings. I will discuss two options of how a strengthening of these two components might contribute to the creation of good artworks: it will help one to create artworks that arouse the universal communicable pleasure in the beautiful, or it will help one to create artworks that arouse sympathetic feelings. Siding with the latter option, I will argue that emotions can contribute to the enlivening of aesthetic ideas and, thus, to good art.
Acknowledgments
I received helpful feedback on this paper from the participants of a workshop in Turin hosted by Gabriele Gava and Andrew Chignell, audiences at the NAKS Biennial (2020), the annual conference of the American Society for Aesthetics (2020) and the ‘Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Ästhetik’ (2021). I would also like to express my gratitude to Elke Elisabeth Schmidt, Dieter Schönecker, Rachel Zuckert and an anonymous reviewer for this journal who helped me to improve this article with their invaluable feedback.
Abbreviations
Apart from the Critique of Pure Reason, all references to Kant’s works are to Kant’s Gesammelte Schriften, Ausgabe der Preußischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1902 ff.). References to the Critique of Pure Reason are to the standard A and B pagination of the first and second editions. Kant’s unpublished reflections are named by their number. Translations are from The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant.
The following abbreviations of individual works are used:
| Anthro | Anthropologie in pragmatischer Hinsicht/Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View |
| CJ | Kritik der Urteilskraft/Critique of the Power of Judgment |
| CPR | Kritik der reinen Vernunft/Critique of Pure Reason |
| CPrR | Kritik der praktischen Vernunf/Critique of Practical Reason |
| Disc | Über eine Entdeckung, nach der alle neue Kritik der reinen Vernunft durch eine ältere entbehrlich gemacht werden soll/On a Discovery whereby Any New Critique of Pure Reason Is to Be Made Superflouus by an Older One |
| Dohna-Wundlacken Logic | Vorlesungen Sommersemester 1792 Logik Dohna-Wundlacken/Dohna-Wundlacken Logic |
| FI | Erste Einleitung in die Kritik der Urteilskraft/First Introduction to the Critique of the Power of Judgment |
| Logic | Logik/Logic |
| MM | Die Metaphysik der Sitten/Metaphysics of Morals |
| Progress | Welches sind die wirklichen Fortschritte, die die Metaphysik seit Leibnitzens und Wolf’s Zeiten in Deutschland gemacht hat?/What Real Progress Has Metaphysics Made in Germany Since the Time of Leibniz and Wolff? |
| Refl. | Reflexionen/Reflections |
| Vienna Logic | Wiener Logik (1780ff.)/Vienna Logic |
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- The Roles of Kant’s Doctrines of Method
- Research Articles
- The Method of Belief: The Unity of Kant’s Reflection in the Canon of Pure Reason
- Kant’s Doctrine of Definitions and the Semantic Background of the Transcendental Analytic
- Two Models of Kantian Construction
- The Dissatisfied Skeptic in Kant’s Discipline of Pure Reason
- How to Become a Good Artist – Kant on Humaniora and the ‘Propaedeutic for All Beautiful Art’
- Virtue, Wide Duties, and Casuistry. On why there is a Doctrine of Method in Kant’s Doctrine of Virtue
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- The Roles of Kant’s Doctrines of Method
- Research Articles
- The Method of Belief: The Unity of Kant’s Reflection in the Canon of Pure Reason
- Kant’s Doctrine of Definitions and the Semantic Background of the Transcendental Analytic
- Two Models of Kantian Construction
- The Dissatisfied Skeptic in Kant’s Discipline of Pure Reason
- How to Become a Good Artist – Kant on Humaniora and the ‘Propaedeutic for All Beautiful Art’
- Virtue, Wide Duties, and Casuistry. On why there is a Doctrine of Method in Kant’s Doctrine of Virtue
