PLEASE NOTE this is a sample reading list for the 2015-16
academic year – precise seminar content may change from year to
year.
WEEK 1: KANT AND CONCEPT OF REFLECTIVE JUDGEMENT
This week provides a general introduction to Kant’s aesthetics. Topics will include
the place of the third Critique in Kant’s ‘Critical Philosophy’, but will focus on
questions largely internal to the Critique of Judgement: notably, what Kant means by
‘aesthetic’, ‘taste’ and, especially, ‘reflective judgement,’ and what makes Kant’s
aesthetics ‘transcendental.’
Required Class Reading
Kant’s preface to the first edition;
Published Introduction; especially §§IV-VII
‘First (Unpublished) Introduction;’ especially §§ V-VIII.
Secondary Reading (Commentaries):
Burnham, Introduction; pp. 1-39;
Wenzel, introduction; pp. 1-18
Kemal, Kant’s Aesthetic Theory, chapter 1
Crawford, Kant’s Aesthetic Theory, pp. 29-36.
Allison, chapters 1-2; especially pp. 30-64
Guyer, Kant and the Claims of Taste, Chapter 2
Additional Relevant Reading:
Alexander Rueger and Sahan Evren, ‘The Role of Symbolic Representation in Kant’s
Theory of Taste,’ BJA, 45: 4, 2005
Andrew Chignell, ‘Beauty as a Symbol of Natural Systematicity, BJA, 46:4, Oct 2006
M Zinkin, ‘Kant and the Pleasure of ‘Mere’ Reflection,’ 55:5, October 2012
P. Guyer and T Cohen ‘Introduction’ to Essays in Kant’s Aesthetics.
E. Schaper ‘Taste, Sublimity and Genius: The Aesthetics of Nature and Art’ in P.
Guyer (ed.) Cambridge Companion to Kant.
M. Budd ‘The Pure Judgement of Taste as an Aesthetic Reflective Judgement’ British
Journal of Aesthetics, Vol. 41, 2001, pp. 247-60.
D. Heinrich ‘Kant’s Explanation of Aesthetic Judgement’ in Aesthetic Judgement and
the Moral Image of the World.
D. Bell ‘The Art of Judgement,’ Mind, 96, 1987; pp. 221-244
P. Crowther ‘The Significance of Kant’s Pure Aesthetic Judgement’, British Journal
of Aesthetics, Vol. 36, No. 2, April 1996.
P. Guyer ‘Kant’s Principles of Reflecting Judgement’ in P. Guyer (ed.) Kant’s
Critique of the Power of Judgement.
H. Ginsborg, ‘Reflective Judgement and Taste’ in Nous Vol. 24, No.1 March 1990.
J. Floyd ‘Heautonomy: Kant on Reflective Judgement and Systematicity’ in H.
Parrett, ed., Kants Äesthetik.
A.C. Genova ‘Kant’s Complex Problem of Reflective Judgement’ in Chadwick &
Cazeaux (eds.), Immanuel Kant. Critical Assessments: Vol. IV.
C. Fricke ‘Explaining the Inexplicable: The Hypothesis of the Faculty of Reflective
Judgement in Kant’s third Critique, in Nous Vol. 24, No.1 March 1990.
R. Pippin, ‘The Significance of Taste: Kant, Aesthetic and Reflective Judgement’
Journal of the History of Philosophy 34, 1996; pp. 549-69.
WEEK 2: ANALYTIC OF THE BEAUTIFUL (FIRST/ SECOND MOMENTS)
This week and next focus on the most influential aspect of the third Critique, its
analysis of the distinctive nature of aesthetic judgement. Kant divides the Analytic
into ‘four moments:’ Quality, Quantity, Relation and Modality. Taken together these
map out Kant’s conception of aesthetic judgement. But the relation between the four
moments—in particular what is supposed to ground what—remains controversial.
This week we focus on the first two moments, Quality and Quantity, paying particular
attention to §9, which Kant claims is ‘the key’ to the whole critique of taste.
Required Class Reading
Kant, CJ §§1-9
Secondary Reading (Commentaries):
McCloskey, Kant’s Aesthetic, pp. 29-49.
Burnham, chapter 1; pp. 40-55.
Wenzel, chapters 1-2; pp. 19-53.
Kemal, chapters 2-3
Crawford, pp. 37-54
Allison, chapters 3-5
Guyer, chapters 3-5
Additional Relevant Reading:
P. Guyer ‘Pleasure and Society in Kant’s Theory of Taste’ in Guyer & Cohen (eds.),
Essays in Kant’s Aesthetics.
H. Allison ‘Pleasure and Harmony in Kant’s Theory of Taste: A Critique of the
Causal Reading’ in H. Parrett, ed., Kants Äesthetik.
H. Ginsborg, ‘On the Key to Kant’s Critique of Taste’ Pacific Philosophical
Quarterly 72, 1991; pp. 290-313.
H. Ginsborg, The Role of Taste in Kant’s Theory of Cognition, especially chapter 3.
H. Ginsborg, ‘Kant on the Subjectivity of Taste’ and K. Ameriks ‘New Views on
Kant’s Judgement of Taste’ in H. Parrett, ed., Kants Äesthetik.
H. Ginsborg, ‘Lawfulness without Law: Kant on the Free Play of Imagination and
Understanding,’ Philosophical Topics, Vol. 25, No. 1, 1997; pp. 37-83.
F. Rush, ‘The Harmony of the Faculties’, Kant-Studien 92, 2001; pp. 38-61.
B. Longuenesse ‘Kant’s Theory of Judgement, and Judgements of Taste: On Henry
Allison’s Kant’s Theory of Taste’, H. Ginsborg ‘Aesthetic Judging and the
Intentionality of Pleasure,’ H. Allison, Reply to the Comments of Longuenesse and
Ginsborg,’ a Symposium in Inquiry Vol. 46, No. 2, June 2003.
P. Guyer, ‘The Harmony of the Faculties Revisited’ in R. Kukla (ed.) Reflecting on
Sensibility: Aesthetics and Cognition in Kant’s Critical Philosophy; also available in
P. Guyer Values of Beauty.
M. Budd, The Aesthetic Appreciation of Nature, Essay 2: Section I,
P. Guyer, ‘Disinterestedness and Desire in Kant’s Aesthetics’ Journal of Aesthetics
and Art Criticism, 36, 1977/8; pp. 449-60.
Rachel Zuckert, ‘A New Look at Kant’s Theory of Pleasure,’ JAAC 60:3, Summer
2002
WEEK 3: ANALYTIC OF THE BEAUTIFUL (THIRD/ FOURTH MOMENTS)
We move on to Relation and Modality this week. Topics include what Kant means by
‘form’ and ‘purposiveness,’ and how he understands the relation between ‘pure’ and
‘dependent’ judgements of taste. We also look at Kant’s famous postulate of a ‘sensus
communis’ underwriting such judgements’ claim to universality—often taken to be
part of Kant’s attempt to justify pure judgements of taste’s claim to universality, by
grounding it in its own a priori principle. There is controversy over what constitutes
the Deduction with different commentators finding attempts scattered throughout the
text, as early as §9 and §§20-2, before the official deduction at §30-40.
Required Class Reading
Kant, CJ §§10-22 (+ General Comment)
[Kant, CJ §§30-40 (+ General Comment) tbc]
Secondary Reading (Third & Fourth Moment):
Burnham, chapter 1; pp. 55-61 and chapter 2;
Wenzel, chapters 3-4; pp. 54-93
Kemal, chapter 4
Allison, chapters 6-7
Guyer, chapter 6
Secondary Reading (Deduction):
McCloskey, chapter 9
Burnham, pp. 74-87
Wenzel, chapters pp. 81-93
Kemal, chapter 5
Crawford, chapters 3-6
Allison, chapter 8
Guyer, chapters 7-9
Third & Fouth Moments: Additional Relevant Reading:
P. Guyer ‘Free and Adherent Beauty: A Modest Proposal’ in British Journal of Aesthetics,
Vol. 42, No. 4, October 2002, reprinted in Guyer, Values of Beauty.
E. Schaper ‘Free and Dependent Beauty’ in E. Schaper, Studies in Kant’s Aesthetics.
G. Scarre ‘Free and Dependent Beauty’ in Immanuel Kant Critical Assessments Vol. IV.
P. Crowther, ‘The Claims of Perfection: A Revisionary Defense of Kant’s Theory of
Dependent
Beauty,’ International Philosophical Quarterly 26, 1986, pp. 61-74.
D. Dutton, ‘Kant and the Conditions of Artistic Beauty,’ British Journal of Aesthetics Vol. 34
1994, pp. 226-41.
M. Budd, The Aesthetic Appreciation of Nature, Essay 2: Section I
J-F. Lyotard ‘The Communication of Taste’ in Lessons on the Analytic of the Sublime
Rachel Zuckert, ‘The Purposiveness of Form: A Reading of Kant’s Aesthetic Formalism,
Journal of the History of Philosophy, 44:4, Oct 2006
Alexander Rueger, ‘Beautiful Surfaces: Kant on Free and Dependent Beauty in Nature and
Art,’ British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 16:3, 2008
Karl Ameriks, ‘Kant and Objectivity of Taste’ British Journal of Aesthetics Vol. 23, No. 1,
1983
Ameriks ‘How to Save Kant’s Deduction of Taste’ Journal of Value Inquiry, 16, 1982
Michael J Young, ‘Kant’s View of Imagination’ Kant-Studien. 79: 1-4.
WEEK 4: ANALYTIC OF THE SUBLIME, MATHEMATICAL/DYNAMICAL
This week we consider Kant’s discussion of two kinds of aesthetic judgements of the
sublime, based on the apprehension of overwhelming magnitude and overwhelming force.
Despite the inability of our sensory capacities to present such phenomena in their totality to
intuition, Kant maintains that our ability to cognize phenomena of such magnitude and force
nonetheless confirms the superiority of our rational, ‘supersensible’ natures.
Required Class Reading
Kant, CJ §§23-29
Secondary Reading (Commentaries):
McCloskey, chapter 10
Burnham, chapter 3
Wenzel, chapter 6
Allison, chapter 13
Additional Relevant Reading:
P. Crowther, The Kantian Sublime: From Morality to Art
J-F. Lyotard, Lessons on the Analytic of the Sublime
K. Pillow, Sublime Understanding
K. Pillow ‘Form and Content in Kant’s Aesthetics: Locating Beauty and the Sublime in the
Work of Art’ Journal of the History of Philosophy, Vol. 32., No. 3, July 1994.
R. Makkreel, Imagination and Interpretation in Kant.
M. Budd, The Aesthetic Appreciation of Nature, Essay 2: Section III.
D. Crawford ‘The Place of the Sublime in Kant’s Aesthetic Theory’ in R. Kennington (ed.)
The Philosophy of Immanuel Kant.
P. Guyer ‘Kant’s Distinction between the Beautiful and the Sublime’ in Review of
Metaphysics, 35, 1982/3; pp. 753-83.
WEEK 5: FINE ART, GENIUS AND AESTHETIC IDEAS
We conclude our analysis of the third Critique with Kant’s positive account of fine art, the
division of arts, genius as the productive capacity responsible for fine art, and the distinctive
function of works of art in Kant’s theory. Topics include the relation between Kant’s account
of aesthetic judgement and his theory of artistic production, the relation between natural and
artistic beauty, and Kant’s claim that works of art are able to present what typically
transcends intuition – ideas -- in sensuous form. We will focus on §§46-9 on genius and
aesthetic ideas.
Required Class Reading:
Kant, CJ; §§43-54
Secondary Reading (commentaries)
McCloskey, chapters 11-14
Burnham, chapter 4
Wenzel, chapter 5
Crawford, chapter 8
Allison, chapters 12
Guyer, chapters 12
Additional Relevant Reading:
P. Crowther, 'Beyond Formalism: Kant's Theory of Art' in Critical Aesthetics and
Postmodernism.
W. Desmond 'Kant and the Terror of Genius: Between Enlightenment and Romanticism', and
R. Makreel ‘On Sublimity, Genius and the Explication of Aesthetic ideas’ H. Parrett, ed.,
Kants Äesthetik.
R. Makkreel, Imagination and Interpretation in Kant.
K. Rogerson, Kan’s Aesthetics: The Roles of Form and Expression.
D. Crawford ‘Kant’s Theory of Creative Imagination’ in Cohen & Guyer, eds., Essays in
Kant's Aesthetics.
P. Guyer, ‘Exemplary Originality: Genius, Universality and Individuality’ in Guyer, Values
of Beauty.
T. Cohen, ‘The Inexplicable: Some Thoughts after Kant’, in B. Gaut & P. Livingston (eds.)
The Creation of Art New Essays in Philosophical Aesthetics.
K. Pillow ‘Jupiter’s Eagle and the Despot’s Hand Mill: Two Views of Metaphor in Kant’,
Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 59, No. 2, Spring 2001.
K. Pillow ‘Form and Content in Kant’s Aesthetics: Locating Beauty and the Sublime in the
Work of Art’ Journal of the History of Philosophy, Vol. 32., No. 3, July 1994.
A.T. Nuyen ‘The Kantian Theory of Metaphor’ Philosophy and Rhetoric 22, 1989, pp. 95109.
L. Zuidervaart. ‘“Aesthetic Ideas” and the Role of Art in Kant’s Ethical Hermenutics’ and B.
Sassen ‘Artistic Genius and the Question of Creativity’ in P. Guyer (ed.) Kant’s Critique of
the Power of Judgement.
I. Stadler, ‘The Idea of Art and its Criticism: A Rational Reconstruction of a Kantian
Doctrine’ in Cohen and Guyer (eds.) Essays in Kant’s Aesthetics.
S. Kemal, ‘The Production of Fine Art’, Kant and Fine Art, chapter 2.
D.W. Gotshalk ‘Form and Expression in Kant’s Aesthetics’ in Kant. Critical Assessments:
Vol. IV.
R.K. Elliott, ‘The Unity of Kant’s Critique of Aesthetic Judgement,’ Kant. Critical
Assessments IV.
P. Guyer ‘Formalism and Theory of Expression in Kant’s Aesthetics’ in Kant Studien 68.
D. Costello, ‘Kant after LeWitt: Towards an Aesthetics of Conceptual Art,’ P. Goldie & E.
Schellekens (eds.) Philosophy and Conceptual Art, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
D.Costello, ‘Kant and the Problem of Strong Non-Perceptual Art,’ BJA (53.3) July 2013
Samantha Matherne, ‘The Inclusive Interpretation of Kant’s Aesthetic Ideas’ BJA, 53:1,
January 2013
Andrew Chignall, ‘Kant on the Normativity of Taste: The Role of Aesthetic Ideas,’
Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 85:3, 2007
Christian Wenzel, ‘Beauty, Genius and Mathematics: Why did Kant Change his Mind’,
History of Philosophy Quarterly, 18:4, October 2001.
Angela Breitenbach, ‘Beauty in Proofs: Kant on Aesthetics in Mathematics, European
Journal of Philosophy, forthcoming
WEEK 6 READING WEEK: NO CLASS
WEEK 7: HEIDEGGER’S CRITIQUE OF AESTHETICS
This week we turn to Heidegger as a counter-point to Kant. In order to contextualize his
account of art, considered over the following two weeks, we will begin by briefly mapping
out certain aspects of Heidegger's broader philosophical project, focusing in particular on his
view of modernity as a historical epoch. This has a direct bearing on his pessimistic view of
modern (and, by extension, contemporary) art, and his highly critical attitude towards the
very idea of ‘aesthetics,’ which he seeks to undermine in his artwork essay.
Required Class Reading:
Heidegger ‘The Age of the World Picture’ in The Question Concerning Technology and
Other Essays
Secondary Reading:
R. Pippin, ‘“The Age of Consummate Meaninglessness:” Heidegger’ in Modernism as a
Philosophical Problem.
H. Dreyfus, ‘Heidegger on the Connection Between Nihilism, Art, Technology and Politics’
in C. Guignon (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Heidegger.
K. Wright ‘The Place of the Work of Art in the Age of Technology’ in C. Macann (ed)
Martin Heidegger: Critical Assessments Vol. IV: Reverberations.
P. Crowther, ‘Heidegger and the Question of Aesthetics’ in Art and Embodiment.
P. Crowther, ‘Fundamental Ontology and Transcendental Beauty: An Approach to Kant’s
Aesthetics,’ Kant-Studien 76 (1985) 55-71.
J. Maitland, ‘An Ontology of Appreciation: Kant’s Aesthetics and the Problem of
Metaphysics’, Immanuel Kant: Critical Assessments Vol. IV.
Additional Relevant Reading:
P. Lacoue-Labarthe Heidegger, Art and Politics
M. Zimmerman Heidegger's Confrontation with Modernity: Technology, Politics and Art
chapter 8,
M. Heidegger: ‘The Question Concerning Technology’ in The Question Concerning
Technology
D.F. Krell, ‘General Introduction: The Question of Being’ in Martin Heidegger, Basic
Writings
D. Frede, ‘The Question of Being: Heidegger’s Project’ in Guignon (ed.) Cambridge
Companion to Heidegger.
WEEK 8: ORIGIN OF THE WORK OF ART I (WORLD AND EARTH)
We now turn to Heidegger's influential essay 'The Origin of the Work of Art' itself. Though
students should read it in its entirety, we shall focus on several key themes and passages in
class. This week we look at the core of Heidegger's account of the work of art itself: what he
calls ‘a strife between “world” and “earth”’ and illustrates by recourse to Van Gogh and a
Greek Temple. We will also consider the art historian, Meyer Schapiro's, famous criticisms
of Heidegger on Van Gogh.
Required Class Reading:
M. Heidegger ‘The Origin of the Work of Art’ (FIRST HALF).
M. Schapiro, ‘The Still-Life as a Personal Object—A Note on Heidegger and Van Gogh’
(1968) and ‘Further Notes on Heidegger and Van Gogh’ (1994), in Schapiro, Theory and
Philosophy of Art: Style, Artist and Society: Selected Papers, New York: George Braziller,
1994.
Secondary Reading:
H. Dreyfus, ‘Heidegger’s Ontology of Art, in Dreyfus & Wrahall (eds) A Companion to
Heidegger, Blackwell 2005
J. Young, Heidegger’s Philosophy of Art; pp. 1-68.
M. Kelly, Iconoclasm in Aesthetics, chapter 1.
D. Palmer, ‘Heidegger and the Ontological Significance of the Work of Art,’ British Journal
of Aesthetics, Vol 38, No 4, October 1998;
O. Poggeler ‘Heidegger on Art’, Karlheinz Stierle ‘An Eye Too Few: Earth and World in
Heidegger, Holderlin and Rousseau’, in Jamme and Harries (eds) Martin Heidegger: Politics,
Art and Technology.
J. Taminaux ‘The Origin of “The Origin of the Work of Art”’ in Poetics, Speculation and
Judgement.
W.D. Owens ‘Heidegger’s Philosophy of Art’ British Journal of Aesthetics, Vol 20. No. 2,
Spring 1989
J Bruin, ‘Heidegger and Two Kinds of Art,’ Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism Vol 52,
No 3, 1994
Additional Relevant Reading:
M. Haar: The Song of the Earth: Part III ‘Art and Earth.’
J. Bernstein, ‘The Genius of Being: Heidegger's ‘The Origin of the Work of Art”’ in The Fate
of Art.
WEEK 9: ORIGIN OF THE WORK OF ART II (BEING & TRUTH)
We move onto the latter half of the ‘Origin of the Work of Art,’ focusing on Heidegger's
conception of truth as aletheia (a Greek term normally translated as “unconcealedness”). This
idea is central to Heidegger's philosophical project, and informs his view of Western
philosophy as a forgetting of the ‘Question of the meaning of Being.’ We shall consider it in
relation to his remarks on art, in particular the difference between the ‘bringing forth’ that
Heidegger attributes to art and the ‘challenging forth’ he takes to be the essence of
technological modernity.
Required Class Reading
Heidegger ‘The Origin of the Work of Art’ (SECOND HALF).
Secondary Reading:
H-G. Gadamer ‘The Truth of the Work of Art’ in Heidegger's Ways.
C. Guignon, ‘Truth as Disclosure: Art, Language and History,’ The Southern Journal of
Philosophy, 1989, Vol. XXVIII Supplement.
J. Young, Heidegger’s Philosophy of Art, CUP, 2002; pp. 1-68.
M. De Beistegui, ‘The Saving Power of Art’ in The New Heidegger, Continuum, 2005.
J-M. Schaeffer, Art of the Modern Age: Philosophy of Art from Kant to Heidegger, chapter 5.
B. Foltz, ‘Earth, Nature and Environment’ and ‘The Technological Domination of Nature’ in
Inhabiting the Earth.
H. Rapaport Is There Truth in Art?, chapter 1.
H. Dreyfus, ‘Heidegger on Gaining a Free Relation to Technology’ in H. Dreyfus & M.
Wrathall (eds.), Heidegger Reexamined: Art, Poetry and Technology, Vol. 3, London:
Routledge, 2002.
Additional Relevant Reading:
M. Heidegger, ‘On the Essence of Truth’, in Basic Writings
M. Heidegger, §44 Being and Time.
E. Tugendhat, ‘Heidegger’s Idea of Truth’ in C. Macann, ed., Critical Heidegger.
WEEK 10: KANT AND HEIDEGGER RECONSIDERED
On the face of it everything we have seen so far suggests that these two thinkers are poles
apart, but Heidegger’s brief remarks on the history of aesthetics, and his critique of
Nietzsche’s misreading of Kant suggests that this view may be overly simplistic. The latter,
by focusing on Kant’s idea of a pleasure of reflection brings us full circle to where we began
with Kant’s account of reflective judgement in the Introductions
Required Class Reading:
Heidegger ‘Six Basic Developments in the History of Aesthetics’ (chapter 13) in Nietzsche
Lectures Volume 1: The Will to Power as Art. Other extracts, including from ‘The Question
Concerning Technology’ tbc.
Secondary Reading:
J. Taminaux ‘The Origin of “The Origin of the Work of Art”’ in Poetics, Speculation and
Judgement.
P. Crowther, ‘Heidegger and the Question of Aesthetics’ in Art and Embodiment.
P. Crowther, ‘Fundamental Ontology and Transcendental Beauty: An Approach to Kant’s
Aesthetics,’ Kant-Studien 76 (1985) 55-71.
J. Maitland, ‘An Ontology of Appreciation: Kant’s Aesthetics and the Problem of
Metaphysics’, Immanuel Kant: Critical Assessments Vol. IV.