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Kant and the Harmony of the Faculties: A Non-Cognitive Interpretation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2018

Apaar Kumar
Apaar Kumar*
Affiliation:
Manipal Centre for Philosophy and Humanities
*
Email: apaarkumar@gmail.com
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Abstract

Kant interpreters are divided on the question of whether determinate cognition plays a role in the harmony of the faculties in aesthetic judgement. I provide a ‘non-cognitive’ interpretation that allows Kant’s statements regarding judgements of natural beauty to cohere such that determinate cognition need not be taken to perform any role in such judgements. I argue that, in aesthetic harmony, judgement privileges the free activity of the imagination over the cognizing function of the understanding for the purpose of unifying the object, although the free imagination cannot violate the obscure concepts and principles of ordinary common sense.

Keywords

Natural beautyaesthetic judgementfree imaginationunderstandingcognition in generalharmony of the faculties

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Type
Articles
Information
Kantian Review , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , March 2018 , pp. 1 - 26
Copyright
© Kantian Review 2018 

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