Immanuel Kant was one of the world’s greatest philosophers.
The Critique of Pure Judgement, perhaps his most subtle and beguiling work, was first published in 1790.
Kant says that human beings are capable of two ways of approaching the world:
a subjective
and an objective way.
Or, as we might put it, a lower and a higher way.
The subjective side of us is focused on the senses,
it is self-centered, short term, amoral and largely out for itself.
The objective side is based on reason, and allows us to think long-term, morally and wrthout regard for ourselves.
In The Critique of Pure Judgement,
Kant explores the distinction between objective
and subjective in the realm of aesthetics.
In other words, in our relationship to art and nature.
Kant makes huge claims for art and nature.
He believes that in our appreciation of these,
we can develop our capacity to have a more reliably objective gaze upon existence in general.
Take the example of how we feel
when we’re out for a walk and are charmed by a beautiful piece of countryside.
We appreciate nature without wanting anything in particular from it.
We are not like a farmer, a developer, or a traveller;
we’re merely delighting in it for its own sake.
And this for Kant is a prime example of an objective relationship to reality.
It’s also why Kant is keen to say:
that whenever sexual desire
enters into our connection with beautiful things,
we are no longer seeing them properly.
For the objective gaze is immediately clouded by the pressure of subjective impulse.
Kant was especially interested in experiences in nature of what he called the sublime.
Moments when we feel awed by encounters with the mightiest aspects of the natural world:
the night sky, glaciers, waterfalls… ocean storms.
Often the things we find beautiful bear the mark of other human hands,
for example, watercolour paintings or pretty gardens.
But what we find sublime is altogether more momentous;
it is when we feel the presence of universal forces that have no reference whatever to anything human.
In contact with the sublime aspects of nature,
we are ineluctably led towards an objective apprehension of reality.
The sublime corrects our egoism
an gives us a visceral sense
of how tiny and insignificant we are in a domain that is fundamentally alien to us.
But our frailty is not the end of the story:
another kind of strength is revealed,
for we become propercljy noble when our minds fully appreciate their limitations an are awed by all that exceeds them.
Kant wasinterested in aesthetic experience,
because he viewed It as a training ground for a more moral relationship to the world.
Sublime scenes were, for this great philosopher, an introduction to wisdom.
– [Dr Kohlheim?]
– [Nietzsche seminar?…….l’l| be with you in a second.]
Thank you.
See you next week.
The Critique of Pure Judgement, perhaps his most subtle and beguiling work, was first published in 1790.
Kant says that human beings are capable of two ways of approaching the world:
a subjective
and an objective way.
Or, as we might put it, a lower and a higher way.
The subjective side of us is focused on the senses,
it is self-centered, short term, amoral and largely out for itself.
The objective side is based on reason, and allows us to think long-term, morally and wrthout regard for ourselves.
In The Critique of Pure Judgement,
Kant explores the distinction between objective
and subjective in the realm of aesthetics.
In other words, in our relationship to art and nature.
Kant makes huge claims for art and nature.
He believes that in our appreciation of these,
we can develop our capacity to have a more reliably objective gaze upon existence in general.
Take the example of how we feel
when we’re out for a walk and are charmed by a beautiful piece of countryside.
We appreciate nature without wanting anything in particular from it.
We are not like a farmer, a developer, or a traveller;
we’re merely delighting in it for its own sake.
And this for Kant is a prime example of an objective relationship to reality.
It’s also why Kant is keen to say:
that whenever sexual desire
enters into our connection with beautiful things,
we are no longer seeing them properly.
For the objective gaze is immediately clouded by the pressure of subjective impulse.
Kant was especially interested in experiences in nature of what he called the sublime.
Moments when we feel awed by encounters with the mightiest aspects of the natural world:
the night sky, glaciers, waterfalls… ocean storms.
Often the things we find beautiful bear the mark of other human hands,
for example, watercolour paintings or pretty gardens.
But what we find sublime is altogether more momentous;
it is when we feel the presence of universal forces that have no reference whatever to anything human.
In contact with the sublime aspects of nature,
we are ineluctably led towards an objective apprehension of reality.
The sublime corrects our egoism
an gives us a visceral sense
of how tiny and insignificant we are in a domain that is fundamentally alien to us.
But our frailty is not the end of the story:
another kind of strength is revealed,
for we become propercljy noble when our minds fully appreciate their limitations an are awed by all that exceeds them.
Kant wasinterested in aesthetic experience,
because he viewed It as a training ground for a more moral relationship to the world.
Sublime scenes were, for this great philosopher, an introduction to wisdom.
– [Dr Kohlheim?]
– [Nietzsche seminar?…….l’l| be with you in a second.]
Thank you.
See you next week.
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