Imm-anuel Kant (IMM-,1724-1804) is a German idealist philosopher and the founder of German classical philosophy and aesthetics. Born in Konigsberg, East Prussia. I studied philosophy, theology, mathematics and physics in college. Since 1755, he has been teaching at the University of Konigsberg, teaching logic, philosophy, mathematics, physics, physical geography, anthropology, pedagogy and so on. 27 years. In his early years, he devoted himself to the study of natural science, wrote "General History of Nature and Theory of Celestial Bodies" and put forward the famous "Nebula Theory". After 1760, he gradually turned to philosophy, and successively wrote Critique of Pure Reason, Critique of Practical Reason, Critique of Judgment, Introduction to Future Metaphysics, and Metaphysics of Morality. , and founded the first huge and complete idealism system of German classical philosophy.
Kant tried to reconcile materialism and idealism, empiricism and rationalism in philosophy and make them compromise and combine in a system. He is a dualist on the surface, but a subjective idealist at heart. Because Kant's aesthetics is an integral part of Kant's philosophical system, this profound contradiction and duality in Kant's philosophy is also reflected in his aesthetic system. Kant's aesthetic thought, like his philosophical thought, has gone through a process of development and change. The development and evolution of Kant's thought can be roughly divided into "pre-critical period" and "critical period", with his three "criticisms", especially "Criticism of Pure Reason" as the basic dividing line. In the "pre-critical period", Kant attached great importance to aesthetics, and wrote the book Observation of Aesthetic Feeling and Sublime Feeling (1764), which investigated and described the basis of aesthetic feeling and sublime feeling. He pointed out that the sense of beauty and sublimity lies not in the * * * nature of the object attribute, but in everyone's ability to accept this * * * and not * * *. On this premise, he investigated various natural phenomena that caused aesthetic feeling and sublimity, the aesthetic feeling and sublimity characteristics of ordinary people, and their differences in gender and nationality; The historical changes of aesthetic taste are also investigated. Generally speaking, most of these investigations are limited to empirical description and lack of profound philosophical analysis, which clearly reflects Rousseau's influence and has the remarkable characteristics of the Enlightenment.
In the critical period, Kant wrote Critique of Pure Reason (178 1 year), Critique of Practical Reason (1788) and Critique of Judgment (1790) in the process of constructing his philosophical system. Criticism of judgment, as aesthetics and teleology, connects the other two "criticisms" to form a complete philosophical system. This unique book mainly contains Kant's aesthetic thoughts. In the first two "criticisms", Kant discussed the intellectuality of making laws for the inevitability of nature and the rationality of making laws for the freedom of will, but intellectuality and rationality, cognition and ethics, and nature and freedom are still opposites. In Critique of Judgment, judgment is put forward as an intermediary link of combination, communication and contact. Judgment is slightly intellectual and rational, between them. It is an ability to seek universality (subjective effectiveness) from the special, also called "reflective judgment". "Reflective judgment" is composed of imagination and intellectuality, and it is also a transcendental ability. It regards nature and purpose as transcendental principles of reflection and judgment. The so-called natural purpose is not to affirm that the object has a purpose, but to imagine that the object has a purpose. If the object is suitable for the purpose, it means that the object is consistent with its essence (internal purpose) or its purpose (external purpose), then it is objective and suitable for the purpose. If the object is suitable for the purpose, it means that the form of the object conforms to the psychological function of the subject (that is, conforms to the judgment), then this is subjective or formal. Objective purposiveness and subjective purposiveness are natural purposiveness. "Reflective judgment" and its form (also a natural purpose) are the theoretical basis of Kant's aesthetics. This form is purposeful and requires the object form to conform to the psychological function of the subject, that is, imagination and intellectuality, so the "reflective judgment" based on this transcendental principle is also an aesthetic judgment.
According to this view, Kant analyzed beauty and sublimity. In The Analysis of Beauty, he defined beauty (aesthetics) according to the category of intellectual judgment, namely, quality, quantity, relationship and way: (1) Beauty is pleasure without considering any interests, emphasizing the difference between aesthetic pleasure and other pleasures; (2) Beauty generally causes the pleasure without concept, emphasizing the subjective universality of aesthetics; (3) Beauty is a purposeful form without a purpose, that is, the form completely conforms to the free activities of imagination and intellectuality, emphasizing that beauty is a purposeful form; (4) Beauty is an object that is bound to produce pleasure no matter what the concept is, and the basis of emphasizing the inevitable effectiveness of aesthetics is "* * * synaesthesia". As mentioned above, the essence of beauty emphasizes that beauty lies in form and is "pure beauty". In Analysis of the Sublime, his aesthetic experience of the sublime focuses on the investigation and analysis of quantity. He thinks that the sublime object is either "infinite" in form or "unparalleled" in strength. The former is called the sublimity of quantity, such as the sea and starry sky, while the latter is called the sublimity of force, such as lightning and storm. The sublimity of quantity, based on the grasp of the huge form of natural objects beyond imagination, arouses the rational concept (ethical power) in the heart to grasp it as a whole, thus producing happiness; The sublimity of power, based on the unparalleled power of natural objects, makes the imagination unable to adapt and feel fear, so it evokes rational ideas to master and overcome, thus producing happiness. In a word, sublimity means that imagination arouses rational ideas to fight against huge and powerful natural objects because it can't be grasped, and wins spiritually, thus producing joy. For the lofty rules, the essence emphasizes that beauty lies in content, and it is "attached beauty".
In the analysis of beauty and sublimity, Kant gave a philosophical definition of beauty and sublimity from the description of aesthetic experience. He replaced beauty with aesthetic feeling and sublime with sublime feeling. Beauty and sublimity are not objective, but subjective, which is the stipulation of subjective idealism. However, as an aesthetic psychological analysis, from beauty to sublimity, it shows the transition from cognition to ethics and from nature to freedom, and builds a bridge between epistemology and ethics.
Kant also put forward two interrelated aesthetic categories from the perspective of aesthetics and creation: the ideal of beauty and aesthetic concept. The so-called ideal of beauty is a standard of interest and appreciation. It is not an abstract concept, nor an empirical standard, but a concrete image (representation) in line with rational ideas. It is the highest model of "relying on beauty" and an appreciation prototype. Kant put forward the ideal of beauty, which shows that he has shifted from the formal analysis of beauty to the emphasis on the content of beauty, from perceptual nature to rational freedom, so he came to the conclusion that "beauty is a symbol of morality", and the so-called aesthetic concept (also translated as aesthetic concept and aesthetic image) is a creative principle. It shows infinite rational ideas with limited images, so it doesn't fit any specific concepts and is difficult to express and exhaust in words. This aesthetic concept is created through the freedom of imagination. On the one hand, we should create according to the rational principle, showing great freedom; On the other hand, it should be processed according to the perceptual materials provided by nature, thus creating "another nature", giving the rational concept an objective reality and making it perceptual and concrete. In aesthetic concepts, images tend to be uncertain concepts, while rational concepts tend to be perceptual concreteness, thus achieving the unity of perceptual images and rational concepts. Aesthetic concept is the realization of the ideal of beauty in aesthetic creation.
As a freely created art, "the art of beauty" belongs to "another kind of nature" and is the expression of aesthetic concepts. From the perspective of creation, "the art of beauty" must be intentional and based on certain concepts, so it must be art rather than nature; From the perspective of appreciation, "the art of beauty" should also be based on purposeful judgment, but it must be natural and seemingly unintentional, just like nature. In other words, the creation of "beautiful art" should be objective and purposeful, and the appreciation should also be objective and purposeful. Kant believes that the purpose of "the art of beauty" is manifested here.
The ability to create "beautiful art", that is, imagination, is called genius by Kant, and the ability to appreciate "beautiful art", that is, appreciation (judgment), is called interest. Genius makes laws and regulations for art, and originality, typicality and naturalness are the characteristics of genius. Interest judges art, Kant pays more attention to interest in the relationship between genius and interest, and thinks that interest is more important than genius, and judgment is more important than imagination. Because "the art of beauty" shows genius, only talent and appreciation can qualify as "the art of beauty". That is to say, an artist (genius) can only produce meaningless things by his imagination, but only by regulating his imagination with judgment and giving it clarity, order and regularity can he expand his imagination within his purpose.
Kant's aesthetics reveals various contradictions in aesthetic activities, such as pure beauty and subordinate beauty, beauty and sublimity, interest and genius. On the one hand, it is believed that beauty lies in form, which is indifferent, has no concept and purpose, and forms are suitable for purposes; On the other hand, it believes that beauty has content and involves purpose and concept. Kant repeatedly emphasized the "pure" nature of beauty and appreciation, but repeatedly affirmed the "dependent" nature of beauty, sublimity and genius. From the perspective of ideological development, Kant tends to reconcile this contradiction and opposition, gradually changing from formal beauty to content beauty, and gradually realizing the transition from natural necessity to spiritual freedom. The propositions such as "ideal of beauty", "aesthetic concept" and "beauty is a symbol of morality" are the concentrated expressions of trying to complete this transformation. However, due to Kant's philosophical system, nature and spirit, phenomenon and ontology, form and content are separated. Although he tried to reconcile them with aesthetics and teleology, he still failed to achieve his intention. The fundamental reason is that Kant has not found the realistic material basis to realize the unity of the two, that is, human social practice.
Kant's aesthetic thoughts inspired later generations, and Goethe, Schiller and Hegel all explored aesthetic problems in the direction proposed by Kant. The wrong things in Kant's aesthetics, such as subjective idealism, transcendentalism and formalism, have also been developed by many western aestheticians, and some have gone to extremes, such as Croce.