Abstract

A brief biography of Immanuel Kant starts off this chapter. Kant’s critical philosophy strives to delineate the boundaries of what we are capable of knowing about nature and ourselves. The chapter centres on Kant’s theory of art (aesthetics) that is developed mainly in his Critique of Judgement. Note that “aesthetics”, for Kant and other German thinkers of his time, refers to the theory of sense apprehension, particularly the conditions of possibility for this function, as well as the philosophy of art. Kant, in his aesthetics, strives to bring into relief the essence of the beautiful as residing in pure judgements of taste. Kant’s account of the distinction between the beautiful and the sublime constitutes an important feature of his aesthetics. He also distinguishes between the mathematical and the dynamical sublimes.