Beauty, Ugliness and the Free Play of Imagination: An Approach to Kant's Aesthetics (Studies in German Idealism Book 17)

"This book presents a solution to the problem known in philosophical aesthetics as the paradox of ugliness, namely, how an object that is displeasing can retain our attention and be greatly appreciated. It does this by exploring and refining the most sophisticated and thoroughly worked out theoretical framework of philosophical aesthetics, Kant's theory of taste, which was put forward in part one of the Critique of the Power of Judgment. The book explores the possibility of incorporating ugliness, a negative aesthetic concept, into the overall Kantian aesthetic picture. It addresses a debate of the last two decades over whether Kant's aesthetics should allow for a pure aesthetic judgment of ugliness. The book critically reviews the main interpretations of Kant's central notion of the free play of imagination and understanding, and offers a new interpretation of free play, one that allows for the possibility of a disharmonious state of mind and ugliness. In addition, the book also applies an interpretation of ugliness in Kant's aesthetics to resolve certain issues that have been raised in contemporary aesthetics, namely the possibility of appreciating artistic and natural ugliness and the role of disgust in artistic representation. Offering a theoretical and practical analysis of different kinds of negative aesthetic experiences, this book will help readers acquire a better understanding of his or her own evaluative processes, which may be helpful in coping with complex aesthetic experiences. Readers will gain unique insight into how ugliness can be offensive, yet, at the same time, fascinating, interesting and captivating"-- Back cover Contents 8 Abbreviations of Kant's Works 10 1 Introduction 12 2 Judgments of Taste and Analysis of the Problem of Ugliness in Kant's Aesthetics 19 2.1 An Introduction to Kant's Theory of Judgments of Taste 20 2.2 Does Kant's Theory of Taste Account for Judgments of Ugliness? 23 2.3 Setting the Problem: David Shier's Challenge and the Argument of the Impossibility of Judgments of Ugliness 27 2.3.1 Ugliness as the Negative Subjective Purposiveness 28 2.3.2 Ugliness as the Subjective Contrapurposiveness 30 2.3.3 Ugliness as the Minimal Subjective Purposiveness 33 2.4 The Final Attack: Paul Guyer on the Epistemological Impossibility of Ugliness 35 3 The Concept of Freedom in the Play of Imagination and Understanding 40 3.1 Kant's View on the Role of the Imagination and Understanding in Cognitive Judgments 42 3.2 Productive Imagination and the Role of Schema in Cognition 46 3.3 The Role of Imagination and Understandingin Judgments of Taste 48 3.3.1 Precognitive Interpretation of the Concept of Free Play: Ginsborg and Allison 51 3.3.2 An Abstractive Interpretation 58 3.3.3 Multicognitive Interpretation 60 3.3.4 Metacognitive Interpretation (Paul Guyer) 62 3.3.5 Symbolic Interpretation 65 3.4 Towards a Positive Interpretation of the Notion of Free Play 68 4 A Positive Account of the Concept of Free Play 71 4.1 The Conception of Free Imagination in Judgments of Taste 73 4.2 Distinction Between a Schema and a Particular Image 78 4.3 The Notion of Free Harmony and the Indeterminate Principle of Purposiveness 81 4.3.1 Reflective Judgments and the Principle of the Purposiveness of Nature 84 4.4 The Principle of Purposiveness and Judgments of Taste 87 4.5 Aesthetic Representation of Purposiveness and the Concept of Beauty 91 4.6 The Solution of the `Everything Is Beautiful' Problem 98 5 The Explanation of Ugliness in Kant's Aesthetics 101 5.1 The Solution to Problems with Judgments of Ugliness in Kant's Aesthetics 102 5.2 The Sublime and the Ugly 105 5.3 The Application of the Concept of Free Harmony to Fine Art 115 5.4 The Paradox of Ugliness in Art and Nature 120 5.5 Aesthetic Ideas and Cognitive Importance of Beauty and Ugliness 127 6 The Notion of Disgust in Comparison to Ugliness: A Kantian Perspective 138 6.1 The Concept of Disgust: An Overview of Kant's Treatment of Disgust in Comparison with Contemporary Studies 138 6.2 The Nature of Visual Disgust and Its Anti-aesthetic Effect in Art 142 6.2.1 Disgust for Disgust's Sake 147 6.2.2 The Possibility of a Positive Aesthetic of Disgust 149 6.3 The Phenomenological and Theoretical Distinction Between Disgust and Ugliness 151 Bibliography 154 Front Matter....Pages i-x Introduction....Pages 1-7 Judgments of Taste and Analysis of the Problem of Ugliness in Kant’s Aesthetics....Pages 9-29 The Concept of Freedom in the Play of Imagination and Understanding....Pages 31-61 A Positive Account of the Concept of Free Play....Pages 63-92 The Explanation of Ugliness in Kant’s Aesthetics....Pages 93-129 The Notion of Disgust in Comparison to Ugliness: A Kantian Perspective....Pages 131-146 Back Matter....Pages 147-152