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Exemplars of Fine Art and Taste

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Kant’s Aesthetic

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Abstract

The second condition of a work of fine art being an exemplar is that it should be beautiful. Kant does not explicitly say that this beauty is dependent and not free beauty; but that appears to be a direct consequence of what he does say. Something has ‘dependent’ rather than ‘free’ beauty, when what that thing is intended to be, and its perfection, enter into the judgement of its beauty. Since Kant explicitly states that they do so in the case of fine art, it seems to follow that the beauty of fine art is dependent beauty. Kant says,

since the agreement of the manifold in a thing with an inner character belonging to it as its end constitutes the perfection of the thing, it follows that in estimating beauty of art the perfection of the thing must be also taken into account — a matter which in estimating a beauty of nature, as beautiful, is quite irrelevant.1

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Notes and References

  1. Meredith, Aesthetic Judgement, p. 173; Kant’s gesammelte Schriften, vol. 5, §48, p. 311, lines 24–9.

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  4. Kant’s emphasis.

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Authors
  1. Mary A. McCloskey
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© 1987 Mary A. McCloskey

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McCloskey, M.A. (1987). Exemplars of Fine Art and Taste. In: Kant’s Aesthetic. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-08796-9_13

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