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Introduction to Kant's Aesthetics: Core Concepts and Problems
Books: Text Books: Aesthetics: Item 8
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Introduction to Kant's Aesthetics: Core Concepts and Problemsby Christian Helmut Wenzel
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An Excellent Introduction to Kant's Aesthetics, July 14, 2006 Reviewer:Joel Schickel - I found this book to be very helpful in understanding Kant's aesthetics. Kant's philosophy is notoriously difficult - so it is nice to have access to books such as this one, that interpret Kant's writing in a non-technical way for a contemporary audience. The book analyzes the overall argument of the Critique of Aesthetic Judgment (the first part of the Critique of Judgment) in a clear, conversational, and questioning style that is appropriate for beginners and more advanced readers of Kant. The author skillfully uses possible objections and apparent ambiguities in Kant's text as a way of delving more deeply into the substance of what Kant is saying. The author states in the preface that the book does not presuppose prior knowledge of Kant's writings, and I found this to be true on the whole. The book does indeed point out many connections between Kant's aesthetics and the epistemology of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. There is extensive discussion of the four "moments" of the judgment of taste, as well as sections on genius, the sublime, the connection between morality and the beautiful, and the question of whether there can be genius in mathematics. Several extra features make this book stand out from other introductory works on Kant. First, technical terms are highlighted in bold in the text and defined in the extensive glossary at the end of the book. Second, at the end of each chapter subsection there is an annotated list of some of the secondary literature that addresses that particular topic. Third, at the end of the book there is a summary and overview of the main points of the book.
Karl Ameriks, University of Notre Dame, 2005
"The reconstruction of arguments is clear and concise; the annotated bibliography is remarkably knowledgeable and helpful" --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Book Description
Kant's Critique of the Power of Judgment is one of the most important and enduring contributions to philosophical aesthetics. It is also notoriously difficult. In An Introduction to Kant's Aesthetics, Christian Wenzel discusses and demystifies this seminal work, guiding the reader each step of the way, placing key points of discussion in the context of Kant's other work.The starting point of Kant's aesthetics, and Wenzel's treatment, is the observation that aesthetic judgments seem to hover uneasily between subjective and objective domains. On the one hand, there appear to be standards of taste, such that aesthetic judgments demand some kind of consensus; on the other hand, there simultaneously seem to exist no specific rules governing what is beautiful. Beginning with this premise, Kant delineates four moments of aesthetic judgment, considers the question of the beautiful, the sublime, and the ugly, and from this groundwork creates a new philosophical theory that reveals the essence of taste, and much else, about human nature besides.Wenzel artfully guides readers through Kant's work with thoroughness and clarity, making Kant's aesthetics accessible to newcomers and more rewarding for those returning to the subject.
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