In general aesthetics is defined as concept that is dualistic - it involves on the one hand the artist and on the other hand the art critic or the philosopher. Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy and as such is interested in art itself and not in specific works of art. Modern aesthetics became distinct in the middle of the eighteenth century, and it was then also when claims that were trying to privilege aesthetic reason or experience arose. Such statements of aesthetic reason are present in Kant’s Critique of Judgement published in 1790. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was born in Prussia and is amongst the most influential philosophers in the history of Western philosophy; he is also often pointed out to be the greatest philosopher after the Greeks. Because of this the philosophical movements that followed him have all been influenced by his contributions to metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics. The Critique of Judgment was the third and last …show more content…
Even though it appears that we are using reason to decide what is beautiful, the judgment is not a cognitive judgment, "and is consequently not logical, but aesthetical". The judgement of taste is subjective, in fact it refers to the response of the subject, which is emotional and depends only on the esteem for the object itself - it is a disinterested pleasure, and we feel that pure judgements of taste, i.e. judgements of beauty, lay claim to universal validity. It is important to underline that this universal validity does not stem from a determinate concept of beauty but from common sense. Kant also considers that a judgement of taste has the same characteristics a moral judgement has - they are disinterested, and we consider them to be