Essay Sample on Aesthetic Judgment

Introduction

Aesthetic judgments are aesthetics of the status of objects, are judgments concerning beauty. Taste is considered the most common concept in aesthetic judgment, and it became the principal faculty used to make aesthetic judgments. Kant introduced the concept of the judgment of taste to measure the meaning of beauty (9). Therefore, Taste is based on various necessary conditions, it can be subjective based on feelings of either pleasure or displeasure and can be induced or made by the authority. Philosophers have been interested in understanding the experiences of and judgments of beauty. Also, they have wanted to know the legitimacy of these experiences and judgments.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

According to Kant (36), in the dimension of Quality, the judgment of beauty is based on feelings that are pleasure or displeasure. The feeling of pleasure is disinterested meaning does not depend on the subjective having the desire for the object. The disinterested character of the feeling differentiates them from any other judgments that are based on feelings and the fact that judgment of beauty based on feeling rather than objective sensation differentiates them from the cognitive judgments that depend on perception. Kant claims that aesthetic judgment only concerns with a form which can be shape and size in the object which is presented (17). He also added that the quality of beautiful depends fully on how the beautiful object looks like, the look of the object is the reflective judgments which is subjective of the taste.

The second dimension is on Quantity; aesthetic judgment behaves universal as it involves a claim of agreement of others. If someone judge certain object as beautiful, other factors might enter which can make others disagree, hence the person demands universality in term of taste (Kant 20). The universality involved in aesthetic judgments is distinguished from mere subjectivity of judgments and strict objectivity judgments. Being reflective judgments, the aesthetic judgments concerning taste lack adequate concept and can behave as if they were objective (Want 18). Kant introduced the idea of free play of cognitive faculties that comprises of imagination and understanding and the related one of universal communicability, that is, while making judgment of beauty concerning an object, it is taken that everyone else ought to judge the same object as beautiful, and to share one`s pleasure in the judgment (25). From this, it follows that judgments about beauty cannot, regardless of their universality validity, be verified; there are no guidelines that somebody can be compelled to judge that something is beautiful.

According to Kant (45), Aesthetic judgments cannot be objective as we cannot be our pleasure or displeasure. However, it could be universal. According to Kant, in arguing about the universal validity and communicability, a subject that feels such pleasure and judges the item to be beautiful, is eligible to demand everyone else feel the same pleasure and agree with the judgment of taste.

Additionally, in the dimension of Relation, the problem of purpose and purposiveness is introduced, where aesthetic judgments appear to be purposiveness without purpose. An object`s purpose is involving the concept at which the object was manufactured. Moreover, purposiveness is property appearing to have been designed. Kant claims that the judgment of an object as beautiful has to be purposive without definite purpose. An example of a flower as used by Kant, his perspective on the flower itself, it refer to it as purposive as it is part of the process and growing. In purposiveness, making a judgment is based on the utility and in purpose judgment is based on perfection and in Kant argument, beauty is equivalent to neither perfection nor utility, but then still purposive. Beauty then appears to be purposive concerning our aptitude judgment (Want 56).

The purposiveness of art is complicated, and even if objects had purposes in their production, it could not be sufficient for the same object to be beautiful. Any judgment known about real purposes of art can inform judgments as background but must be distracted from to system the aesthetic judgment suitably. Kant describes the judgment of an object as perceived about itself. Thus, the activity of understanding and imagination in their arrangement relates to the object (Kant 61). The way an object resembles its own and making a judgment, the value of the object itself is considered. Hence, the self-portrait by the object is kind of purposiveness without purpose. The judgment is finality as it final how the object looks like and generates its purpose and how it looks relate to itself. It tries to relate the object without any purposes.

In the dimension of Modality, Kant attempted to show aesthetic judgments must go through the test of necessity, which probably means according to principle (Kant 25). Kant was trying to mean judgments does not produce or in other words follow a determining concept of beauty, instead exhausts itself in being precise of aesthetic judgments. Aesthetic judgment is based on common sense, defined as the subjective principle that allows people to judge by feeling rather than concepts. In cognition of nature, the universal communicability concerning representation and its objectivity and basis in common sense are all related. Kant positively characterizes the idea of necessity by asserting that it is exemplary in the sense that judgments itself act as an example of how everybody ought to judge (Want 27).

More so, modality creates the ability to realize how others feel with the aesthetic dimension, as understanding about the nature of an object grants us how we follow the object in consideration, whereas imagination gives us feeling of life either to pleasure or displeasure. The combination of understanding and imagination assists us to make an aesthetic judgment. Kant in his study relates the idea of aesthetics to clarification by way of reason, and the way of human being is cultivated by aesthetic education, like we utilize reason to argue each other and in providing different opinions without leaving own aesthetic judgement and the aesthetic education assists to create culture through reasoning (Want 44). It is the reason that is used to explain our thoughts of an object is beautiful, and it is not only learning what beautiful but also to provide education and civilize human being to develop the way of thinking.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Kant`s aesthetic judgments tried to explain the judgment of taste regarding beauty, and it includes the four dimensions quality, quantity, relation, and modality. All the dimensions work together to help human beings understand more about aesthetics and what beautiful means. Also, Kant`s aim of judgment is to educate us on how to use reasons or think from the personal point of view too as well as others and also helps as to escape unrestrained observance (Kant 32).

Work Cited

Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Judgement. Mineola, N.Y: Dover Publications, 2012. Internet resource.

Want, Christopher. Philosophers on Art from Kant to the Postmodernists: A Critical Reader. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010. Print