Monday, October 21, 2019

Beauty, Reflection, Pleasure

According to Alexander, Beauty is a Tertiary Quality--neither a property of an object, nor a feeling of a subject, but a characteristic of the experience of an object.  In other words, 'X is beautiful' means 'The experience of X is beautiful'.  Now, Kant seems to agree with Alexander's classification, adding the analysis that it is upon reflection that a beautiful relation is first revealed.  But he also discovers in the reflection the emergence of a further pleasure--the pleasure that he characterizes as "universally communicable", i. e. Taste is a Reflective Judgement.  But that reflective pleasure is distinct from the unreflected-upon direct pleasure of an object, e. g. enjoyed dancing to music.  Likewise, the beautiful relation itself is independent of the reflection upon it, and of the pleasure that emerges in the latter.  So, Beauty as a Tertiary Quality may become an object of Reflection, but the pleasure that Kant attributes to the Reflection is extrinsic to Beauty.  In other words, Aesthetic Experience may be enriched by Aesthetic Judgement, but it is independent of it.

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