The Three-fold Insertion of the Aesthetic in the Critical System

Abstract

Each of Kant’s three critiques contains a discussion of something called ‘aesthetics’. This is not generally noted and this indicates that the continuity between the three Critiques is not generally captured. In this chapter I will set out the reasons why each of the Critiques contains an ‘aesthetic’, what differentiates the three aesthetics, why they all share this title and the reasons there are to postulate an overall aesthetic as the lynchpin of the critical system. It will be necessary to address each of the aesthetics in turn: the Transcendental Aesthetic of the First Critique, the ‘drives (Triebfeder) of pure practical reason’ of the Second Critique, and the Critique of Aesthetic Judgment of the Third Critique.