The reason is simple. Kant said that aesthetic appreciation ability, like our theoretical thinking ability, is something that everyone possesses. Since we have a common ability, we will have things that can be achieved through our shared ability. This must be universal, and the truth is not complicated, because I have the ability to appreciate, and you also have the ability to appreciate. Of course, naturally, before the sunrise of Mount Taishan Mountain, we will all say beauty, which means that we cannot say anything about beauty, but we can see what beauty is, and we can make a judgment on him, and make the same judgment on him, which is a basic statement of Kant.
So, the reason why aesthetic observation is subjective and universal is here. Because the subjective ability and aesthetic appreciation ability that lay the foundation for it are universal, just as our rationality and intellect are universal abilities, aesthetic appreciation ability is universal for all of us. Therefore, the aesthetic judgments we make should also be effective for everyone.
Kant argues for one of his ideas in this way, of course, aesthetic appreciation cannot be equated with a simple pleasurable experience itself.
Joyful experiences are not universally communicable. The reason why they are a universally communicable state is that they contain norms, but not conceptual norms, because such judgments have no rules or defined concepts. Although they have normative things, normative things are not conceptual norms. This is definitely a way that does not conform to rules, but contains a spiritual cognitive ability, namely appreciation ability or imagination.
When reason and imagination reach a game of freedom and harmony in experience, he turns something into beauty without feeling a headache. What is a game of freedom and harmony?
Aesthetic judgment, because there is no defined concept, is not constrained by concepts. In a sense, it has full freedom to judge what is beautiful and what is not. It is a game, a rational and imaginative process. The game of mutual free interaction generates judgment.
So, aesthetics is different from the judgment that 2+2 equals 4. This judgment is fixed and there is no room for freedom. It is a judgment dominated by logical necessity, while aesthetics is the free action of reason and imagination.
Kant used a free game here to make a judgment. Why is it a free game?
Because there are no rules here, no conceptual rules that support the logical reasoning we have in the theoretical world.
Therefore, the experience of beauty includes imagination, although in some indirect way, although imagination can combine the things he experiences according to his own plan. However, when imagination constructs a unity of experience, although unity is not governed by a single concept or rule. This is in harmony with various rational conceptual judgments, and this harmony has always been spontaneous and not guided by any concepts.
At this point, we can grasp that when we make aesthetic judgments, we do not rule out some conceptual regulations or judgments about our aesthetic objects. When we judge the beauty of Mount Huangshan Mountain, such a judgment does not rule out our so-called intellectual judgment of its shape, height and so on.
But rather, with such a judgment, tall, majestic, or a sense of heaviness or something, we have a free interaction with him, and then come together. His aesthetic judgment is irregular, but he does not completely exclude some regular things. Rationality and imagination interact and achieve through experience.
This kind of harmonious consciousness itself is spontaneously generated, not guided by any concepts, without rules. This kind of harmony and consistency cannot be directly experienced. In fact, it is through a reflective and judgmental action that we can grasp this kind of harmony and consistency.
Kant did not believe that he referred to the cent as beautiful and magnificent, as grandeur generally refers to the natural world. The Yangtze River is called magnificent, and there is also a beauty, such as painting, artificial works of art, a very beautiful handicraft, a sculpture, a beautiful oil painting. However, Kant believed that it is not a direct experience, but rather an activity of imagination, reason, and free play through reflection and aesthetic judgment.
It's impossible to feel cold like we see it, this is not an aesthetic experience, it's a reflective judgment.
Kant emphasized that aesthetic experience is a combination of spontaneous and passive factors. He has spontaneous factors, he plays freely, but he also has passive factors. He cannot be like a gust of wind, facing nothing. In the subjective experience of comfort and pleasure in daily life, we first have this experience, and then come to the judgment that this experience is indeed pleasant.
In aesthetic experience, we must have a reflective judgment that something is beautiful. I think we need to have a reflective judgment first, and then we can generate aesthetic pleasure.
According to Kant's statement, the first thing I want to say is that peonies are very beautiful. Only with judgment can I feel the beauty of peonies to me. This is Kant's concept, and pleasure cannot arise before judgment. Without reflection, judgment, and aesthetic judgment, you do not have pleasure, and that is correct.
Aesthetic judgment, as a free game of imagination and reason, is the pleasure itself. Reflective judgment is the way we judge how our experience should be. Therefore, just like daily experience, beauty only appears to us. From our judgment, we cannot turn something that is not beautiful into beauty. In this regard, although beauty is subjective, that is, it is in my heart, we cannot say that I can arbitrarily say that something is beautiful.
At this point, we cannot say that Kant is an anarchist or relativist on aesthetic issues. Anything is okay, ugly is beautiful, and beautiful is ugly. Kant never believes this. Why does he emphasize that aesthetic judgments have universal validity, and that no one can say it casually.
However, the difference between social experience and daily experience is that it contains a spontaneous reflective judgment based on aesthetic experience, which is an essential component of it. It must have both normative and empirical elements.
Having appreciation is the ability to reflect and respond to objects of experience, as if these objects were designed to give us that experience. Art shows a key characteristic of every thing we encounter, and nature presents itself as beautiful in the same way. When we encounter something, a beautiful scenery or a beautiful waterfall, it seems to us that it was designed by someone, just in line with our imagination and reason, and the result of spontaneous harmony. We often talk about "ingenious craftsmanship", and people must have more or less travel experience. Often, in some particularly beautiful places, we feel that nature is real, as if someone is designing it. Otherwise, how could it be like this? Beauty, we would say it's a masterpiece of craftsmanship, Or sometimes we may talk about it, especially when it comes to Mount Hua, where you can see his exquisite craftsmanship in such a dangerous place.
In fact, everything behind it is Kant's words. It seems that there is a purposeful designer who designs here, let alone a work of art, because any work of art contains the artist's own careful arrangement and conception, just like intentional design, allowing our imagination and reason to spontaneously produce a harmonious result, which is breathtaking.
Kant believed that there is no problem with art, it is our intentional design to create such harmonious experiences. Any artist, at least before the 20th century, would have said, 'I must design something beautiful.' Kant believed that all works of art have no problem and are aesthetic experiences created by intentional design.
Although this design is sometimes hidden deep and not so foolish, it just won't let you immediately see where my unique craftsmanship lies. The better the artist, the deeper their craftsmanship is buried, as if everything is naturally formed, and you can't even see their unique craftsmanship.
However, no matter what, we can discover the purpose of the artist in art, that is, his ingenuity, because his ingenuity hopes to be produced in us. When he has such an idea, there is also a sense of harmony and beauty, which is beyond doubt.
Artworks are fine, but how do we view nature?
It seems that we say nature has no intentional design, but we find that it meets our imagination and rational requirements everywhere, as if they were designed that way. However, we cannot assume that the world is actually designed in that way to meet our requirements, as that would violate the conceptual conditions of empirical possibility, because we cannot know things themselves, because after all, we can still know the phenomena of things.
Therefore, Kant said that aesthetic experience is actually a "purposeless conformity", also known as purposeless conformity?
It is a thing that gives us a sense of harmony and consistency based on a purpose that we cannot express. If you cannot say anything, I feel that it is harmonious, clever, and seamless everywhere. However, if you want to say what purpose it has, we cannot express it, and it is purposeless.
From the beginning of the Third Critique, Kant did not interpret this work as a popular one, but rather as a work that tells you how to appreciate aesthetics and art. This is a philosophical work, and what problem does he want to solve?
He actually wants to connect rational theory and practice, connect the natural world and freedom, and in one sentence, connect truth, goodness, and beauty. Because in the era of Kant, in Plato, Aristotle, and the Middle Ages, Westerners, like us Chinese, believe that truth, good and beauty are the same thing. They believe that truth, good and beauty are real things, must be good and must be beautiful.
