Kant's Aesthetic Epistemology: Form and World

337 Pages·2007·1.44 MB·English

by  Fiona Hughes

Fiona Hughes is Lecturer in KANT’S KANT’S AESTHETIC
Philosophy at the University K
A
of Essex. She is the author of
N EPISTEMOLOGY
AESTHETIC
published articles on Kant and
T
aesthetics and on Nietzsche, ’S FORM AND WORLD
aesthetics and hermeneutics.
A EPISTEMOLOGY
She is currently writing a book E
on aesthetics and the arts. S Fiona Hughes
T
‘A brilliantly executed presentation of a
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FORM AND WORLD
case for a new and fruitful way of
E
D
perceiving Kant’s Critical project.’ T rawing on resources from both
I the Analytical and Continental
C
John Llewelyn, Reader in Philosophy,
traditions, Fiona Hughes argues that
E
University of Edinburgh a comprehension of Kant’s aesthetics
P
I is necessary for grasping the scope
S
T and force of his epistemology.
E
M
She draws on phenomenological
O
and aesthetic resources to bring out
L
the continuing relevance of Kant’s
O
project. One of the difficulties
G
Y faced in reading The Critique of
Pure Reason is finding a way of
reading the text as one continuous
F discussion. This book offers a
I
O reading at each stage of Kant’s
N epistemological argument, showing
A how various elements of Kant’s

H argument, often thought of
U as extraneous or indefensible,
G
can be integrated.
Cover image: Ian Hamilton Finlay, Little Sparta H
Photograph by Andrew Lawson
E
Cover design: Cathy Sprent This incisive study, arguing for the
S
Edinburgh University Press centrality of aesthetics in philosophy,
22 George Square
Edinburgh EH8 9LF and within experience in general,
www.eup.ed.ac.uk challenges a blind spot in the Anglo-
ISBN 978 0 7486 2122 4 American tradition of philosophy
E
and will contribute to a growing
d
i interest in the general significance
n
b of aesthetic culture.
u
r
g Fiona Hughes
h
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Kant’s Aesthetic Epistemology
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‘Music . . . is not an expression of what life is, but an expression
of what life could be, or what it could become.’
Daniel Barenboim. Reith Lectures 2006
In memory of George Elder Davie (1912–2007), student of Kemp Smith
and scholar of the Scottish (and Irish) Enlightenment.
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KANT’S AESTHETIC
EPISTEMOLOGY
F
ORM AND WORLD
2
Fiona Hughes
Edinburgh University Press
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© Fiona Hughes, 2007
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
22 George Square, Edinburgh
Typeset in Sabon
by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Manchester, and
printed and bound in Great Britain by
Biddles Ltd, King’s Lynn, Norfolk
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7486 2122 4 (hardback)
The right of Fiona Hughes
to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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Contents
Acknowledgements vi
References to Kant’s Works viii
Introduction 1
1 The Centrality of the Problem of Formalism 8
2 Formalism and the Circle of Representation 49
3 Formal Idealism and the Aesthetic Condition
of Experience 86
4 The Deep Structure of Synthesis 112
5 The Completion of the Subjective Deduction in
the Deductions of the Critique of Judgement 169
6 A Priori Knowledge as the Anticipation of a Material
Given and the Need for a Spatial Schematism 207
7 Empirical Systematicity and its Relation to
Aesthetic Judgement 248
8 Aesthetic Judgement’s Exemplary Exhibition
of Cognition 277
Afterword 311
Bibliography 316
Author/subject index 321
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Acknowledgements
This project has been a long time in gestation and I owe many thanks
to particular people and the creative milieu in a number of different
institutions. My acknowledgements have to reach back at least as far
as my days as an undergraduate at the University of Edinburgh and
to a circle of friends. Later, at the University of Oxford I gained
another informal research group, some philosophers like Sally (Sarah)
Gibbons, some not. My supervisor, Michael Rosen, was unfailingly
helpful. At Oxford I found further resources to help me situate my
philosophical interests within a more general framework. The moti-
vation to do so – traces of which I hope are still visible at the margins
of this book – arose in great measure from the intellectual culture in
Edinburgh and the influence of George Davie’s The Democratic
Intellect. From my appointment at Essex as a new lecturer, I had the
great fortune to expand my horizons through exposure to the style of
thinking of the philosophical art historian, Michael Podro, who
became a true colleague and friend. For many years, we ran joint sem-
inars together and if the students enjoyed them and learnt as much as
I did, I am satisfied. Over the years, my students at Essex – mainly in
the philosophy department, but also those working in other disci-
plines – have been an ongoing source of inspiration.
I am particularly grateful to a number of people who gave their
valuable time to read and comment on parts or the whole of my man-
uscript. Needless to say, any remaining problems are my own, not
theirs. These include Neil Cox, Douglas Burnham, Sebastian Gardner,
Dana MacFarlane, Wayne Martin and Michael Podro. I want to espe-
cially thank John Llewelyn. He has been an inspiration and a great
support since my Edinburgh days. I cannot adequately capture his
scrupulous attention to detail, combined with unstinting generosity –
not only in reading my manuscript, but also in philosophy and in life
in general. Other friends helped on specific points and kept my spirits
up when the going was tough.
In 2003 the Arts and Humanities Research Board (now AHRC)
awarded me a Research Leave Scheme Grant allowing one term’s
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Acknowledgements
leave from teaching. In conjunction with sabbatical leave from the
University of Essex, this allowed me to complete a first draft of
my manuscript. Many individual members of staff at Edinburgh
University Press have been very helpful. I must mention, in particular,
Jackie Jones and Carol Macdonald, my editors, who, without fail,
have been both constructive and insightful.
I am grateful to Nicola Gray, whose perceptive interventions were
extremely helpful in the preparation of my manuscript for publica-
tion, and to James Corby for preparing the index. I would also like to
especially acknowledge here the great support given me by my mother
and also by my father, when he was alive. From early on, they both
were prepared to make many sacrifices in support of my education.
Finally, thanks to John Walshe, who gives so much encouragement
and, refreshingly, not necessarily in ways I might expect!
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References to Kant’s Works
All references to Kant’s works are to Kant’s Gesammelte Schriften
herausgeben von der Königlich Preußischen Akademie der
Wissenschaften [Berlin 1902– ], commonly referred to as the
‘Akademieausgabe’ [(cid:1) AA from now on].
When necessary I offer my own translations. Otherwise, I make use
of the following standard versions in English:
[1781 and 1787] (1933, 2nd edn) Critique of Pure Reason, trans.
N. Kemp Smith, London and Basingstoke: Macmillan [(cid:1) CPR].
Page references to the first edition of 1781 are preceded by A, while
those to the second edition of 1787 are preceded by B.
Material is reprinted by permission of Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
The A edition appears in Volume IV of the Akademie edition, while
Volume III comprises the B edition.
[1790] (1987) Critique of Judgment, trans., W. Pluhar, Indianapolis,
IN: Hackett. All references to this text are preceded byAA.
Material is reprinted by permission of Hackett Publishing
Company, Inc. All rights reserved.
The main text appears in Volume V of the Akademie edition. An
alternative, unpublished version of the Introduction, commonly
referred to as the ‘First Introduction’ appears in Volume XX.
References to the earlier and longer version will be distinguished by
a prime mark, for example, AA 191′.
Other translations referred to:
(2004) Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science, ed. M.
Friedman, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
(1963) On History, ed. L. W. Beck, Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-
Merrill for ‘Perpetual Peace’ and ‘The End of All Things’.
(1991) Political Writings, ed. H. S. Reiss, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
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Introduction
In ‘Little Sparta’, a garden in the Pentland hills outside of Edinburgh,
two planks stretch across a stream. On each is inscribed: ‘That which
joins and that which divides is one and the same.’ The inscription on
one faces that on the other. At first sight we see a bridge, but then
we see two planks divided from one another; looking again we see
the two planks as one structure, realising that each bears the same
inscription. The inscription stretching the length of each plank takes
time to read and there is no one perspective from which both can be
apprehended. Our realisation of the similarity of the two planks is
only achieved through a process of recognition, for after an initial
impression of unity, they appear as disrupting one another. Our aes-
thetic response is of unity achieved only through a process linking two
distinct components.
Much more could be said about this contemporary artwork by
the Scottish artist Ian Hamilton Finlay, his use of a fragment from
Heraclitus and the relation in which the work stands to the philo-
sophical ideas that follow. In general my point is that through an aes-
thetic presentation – in this case, visual – a train of thought is
instigated. What we see makes us think, and what we think makes us
look further, in turn making us think more. While a whole philosoph-
ical treatise may, and indeed will in what follows, attempt to express
a thought, this artwork quickly and effortlessly brings us into the
centre of a complex set of associations. We are led in by what we see,
just as we might be led across the stream by the bridge. We find that
we are already in the midst of a way of seeing the world and of ori-
enting ourselves within its perspective. Both artworks and aesthetic
experiences of nature have the capacity to bring about such an insight,
which counts as a form of reflection on the world and our place in it.
This, I believe, is what Kant discovered in his Critique of Aesthetic
Judgement. More specifically, I will argue in what follows that he came
to the conclusion that a harmonious combination of mental capacities,
characteristic of aesthetic judgement, allows for a reflection on a more
general cooperation that is necessary for any experience whatsoever.
1