The Critique of Judgement: (containing Kant's "Critique of Aesthetic Judgement" and "Critique of Teleological Judgement") (Paperback)

by Immanuel Kant (Author), James Creed Meredith (Translator) "IF we wish to discern whether anything is beautiful or not, we do not refer the representation of it to the Object by means of..." (more)
Key Phrases: teleological estimate, subjective finality, physical teleology, Analytic of the Sublime, General Remark, Analytic of the Beautiful (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
Unquestionably the best translation in English and the best overall edition in nonGerman. -- Thomas Willette, University of Michigan --This text refers to the Library Binding edition.

Product Description

Kant's attempt to establish the principles behind the faculty of judgment remains one of the most important works on human reason. This third of the philosopher's three Critiques forms the very basis of modern aesthetics by establishing the almost universally accepted framework for debate of aesthetic issues.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details Paperback: 434 pages Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (October 26, 1978) Language: English ISBN-10: 0198245890 ISBN-13: 978-0198245896 Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 4.7 x 0.7 inches Shipping Weight: 13.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies) Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews) Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,035,170 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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First Sentence:
IF we wish to discern whether anything is beautiful or not, we do not refer the representation of it to the Object by means of understanding with a view to cognition, but by means of the imagination (acting perhaps in conjunction with understanding) we refer the representation to the Subject and its feeling of pleasure or displeasure. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
teleological estimate, subjective finality, physical teleology, determinant judgement, extrinsic finality, aesthetic estimate, pure aesthetic judgements, intelligible substrate, teleological judgement, objective finality, formal finality, supersensible substrate, aesthetic estimation, pure judgement, practical finality, supersensible faculty, intrinsic finality, universal communicability, moral teleology, reflective judgement, theoretical employment, something supersensible, formative arts, natural finality, singular judgement

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Analytic of the Sublime, General Remark, Analytic of the Beautiful, Critique of Teleological, Third Moment, Second Moment, Critique of Practical Reason, Critique of Pure Reason

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 1 book:

• The Critique of Judgment (Great Books in Philosophy) by Immanuel Kant in Front Matter

 

100 books cite this book:

• The Fine Art of Repetition: Essays in the Philosophy of Music by Peter Kivy on 9 pages
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• Kant and the Problem of God by Gordon E. Michalson Jr on 7 pages
• The Subject of Modernity (Literature, Culture, Theory) by Anthony J. Cascardi on 6 pages
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Books on Related Topics (learn more)

History of Philosophy, Volume 6 by Frederick Copleston S.J.

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• physical teleology
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• supersensible substrate

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Discusses:

• subjective finality
• physical teleology
• determinant judgement

Critique of the Power of Judgment by Immanuel Kant

Discusses:

• physical teleology
• aesthetic estimation
• supersensible faculty

Continental Aesthetics by Richard Kearney

Discusses:

• subjective finality
• aesthetic estimate
• objective finality

Kant and the Claims of Taste by Paul Guyer

Discusses:

• subjective finality
• intelligible substrate
• objective finality

Kant's Theory of Taste by Henry E. Allison

Discusses:

• intelligible substrate
• supersensible substrate
• aesthetic estimation

History of Philosophy, Volume 6 by Frederick Copleston S.J. Discusses: physical teleology objective finality supersensible substrate A Kant Dictionary by Howard Caygill Discusses: subjective finality physical teleology determinant judgement Critique of the Power of Judgment by Immanuel Kant Discusses: physical teleology aesthetic estimation supersensible faculty Continental Aesthetics by Richard Kearney Discusses: subjective finality aesthetic estimate objective finality Loading...

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7 Reviews 5 star:  (5) 4 star:    (0) 3 star:  (1) 2 star:  (1) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review 4.3 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews 18 of 24 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Someday we will understand this book, April 21, 2001 By A Customer This review is from: The Critique of Judgment (Great Books in Philosophy) (Paperback) The Critique of the Power of Judgment (the 3rd Critique) is the most important work in Modern philosophical aesthetics. The Guyer and Pluhar editions are to be preferred to that of Bernard, as the first two have more extenisve notes, and better translations, including of the First Introduction. The 3rd Critique presents a vision of beauty, sublimity, and art that avoids reduction of them to them to the biological, a la Nietzsche or Freud. Instead, Kant describes the *justification* of reflective aesthetic judgments in terms of the conditions for using jugment, stressing the contemplative and harmonious character of the experience of beauty. Beauty is linked to cognitive and moral betterment; sublimity, a secondary subject, is discussed more purely in terms of it connection with morality. The work is difficult; however, there is no substitute for close reading of the whole work. (Certainly not Schiller, who goes far beyond Kant in claiming beauty and art as foundational for knowledge). The 3rd Critique is still very contemporary in its import, including its theory of disinterestedness, which is compatible with intelligent accounts of affect. 3 of 3 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Kant's argument for finding the universal concept of beauty, December 26, 2008 By  Michael A Neulander "Political Philosophy" (VA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)       This review is from: Critique of Judgment (Hackett Publishing) (Paperback) I read this book for a graduate seminar on the philosophy of art. Kant is one of the major figures in expression theory. What we understand as aesthetics changed only recently. Kant lays this out well in his "Critique of Judgment," which is one of his easier books to comprehend! Science and math development was momentous in re-interpreting how nature is understood, and all this starts in his time. The modern science narrative that says ancient thought erred; caused a split between science and philosophy. Scientific method and math causes nature to be seen in a "mechanistic" way, there are no "value" judgments anymore so this valueless nature by science caused the split because nature can't explain values anymore. Thus, philosophy finds that "values" are in humans, not in nature, we are the "location" of values now. Beauty, which is a value, is an idea in our minds. This expression theory says something about us it is in our minds. Kant agrees with this notion of how modern science operates especially in "Critique of Pure Reason." However, with questions of art he doesn't rely on science. Kant begins that there is such a thing as an experience of beauty, and that we normally presuppose that it must be compelling rather than just mere opinion unlike taste in food. Then he asks why would there be such a thing? He is now trying to lay out possible answers to that question. In the experience of beauty, the mind gets a special perspective on its own powers. Thus, this special perspective is free of the normal constraints of the things we do in our lives like knowing and worrying. Kant realizes that the aesthetic experience is subjective; it is in the human mind not in reality. He wants to make artistic judgments. Not just interested in individual subjectivity, he looks for a "universal" character of experience of judgment. It is not real useful to just catalogue people's subjective opinions. Kant says inter-subjective principle is part of the human mind as more of a collective. Thus, humans can make judgment. Kant's idea of taste is not to merely have a subjective opinion; people have a kind of competency they have discernment. The difficulty in this notion is, how does one know when they find a universal. Kant astutely argues that one can't argue towards an aesthetic judgment like in logic, aesthetics is subjective but he wants humans to be able to say; "this painting is beautiful, and not just to me." Important point: is there such a thing as subjective universality? This is his dilemma, although he thinks there is if you can use the principle of "disinterest." The realm of subjectivity is realm of interests. Once one is divorced of all normal interest, one can view art with a "disinterested" view. This notion of disinterest screens out allot but has to be connected to pleasure but not mere opinion universally. The other important element of disinterest has been the continuing idea and even could be something that could be applicable to any area of art. There is something about art that has some relationship to a "pause" from normal relationships. There is something special about artworks that even though there was no such thing as a museum in Greece, Greek statuary and architecture was all part of the cityscape, part of the actual landscape and livingscape of Greece, and therefore part of the city so no such thing as a museum. However, whenever a statue was put up or a temple, or a play was put on, that would seem to be something different from the normal relationships with objects either in terms of using them for some practical purpose and therefore using them up giving the works some special reserve, special status. Disinterest wouldn't require that it have the subjectivism term because you would simply say that the whole point of art could be disengaged normal ways of engaging things, even if it didn't have a subjective theory of expression. According to this notion of "disinterest," the idea of political art would be a contradiction in terms. Art as applied as nothing more than serving political needs. Like how the Soviet Union used art for nothing else but to serve the workers revolution. Kant is saying, the whole idea of engaging beauty is to be divorced from the normal ways of things, and that would include end purposes, goals, and outcomes. Distinction between subjective universal validity and objective universal validity. An important argument Kant makes is that all judgments of "taste" and "beauty" are of a singular judgment. If it is unique, it cannot fit in the universal concept of beauty. There are no formulas, principles, or rules for identifying beauty. There is only the "possibility" of aesthetic judgments, so he can't list items of art that conform to his aesthetic judgment. Kant says something about art is different than everything else it doesn't have interest, axioms, rules, can't list things, but it has some positives, it is pleasurable, it draws us, it satisfies us, it isn't pleasure of practical needs or pleasure of knowledge or any interests. It doesn't excite our personal desires, it just gives us a direct experience of pleasure. Thus, Kant gives an intellectual picture of aesthetic taste and he says it is always a species of pleasure. The category of disinterest provides two notions for Kant, one is freedom, and the other is universality. By freedom, he means, freedom from both desire and knowledge, and that is the interesting part. Another important concept for Kant is that the free play of imagination is one of the features that make up beauty. Free play of imagination of art gives pleasure because the mind is free from normal cognitive needs, logical rules, or empirical findings, practical needs, and therefore it has an element of openness. Thus, imagination is very important here, imagination is the ability to conjure up something that is not a fact in the real world. The free play in the imagination in art gives pleasure, because here the mind can simply enjoy its own cognitive powers independent of the constraints of the other realms, like science, math, logic, and other practical needs. Free play opens the idea that the artist has allot of leeway. The artist is not bound by facts and realities, nor is the audience someone who has to have that attitude either. Therefore, when you are looking at a painting or you are reading a poem or listening to music in this mode you are not bound by other ways of knowing. You are going to be free of that. What does that mean? First of all, all art is going to have a tangible means of presentation through sound or sight or color, texture, structure, so forth. This excites pleasure because art is a less ordered realm than other areas. Kant wouldn't say you could take pleasure in something that was chaotic. Kant says you can't force aesthetic judgment on others, but beauty has a universal claim, that is the tightrope he is walking. It is complicated, beauty is not chaotic, but not private opinion. Disinterest and free play of mind is two sides of same coin. Imagination is not bound by normal modes of knowing, or normal needs or desires so it is associated with free play. Normally our desires are compelling to us. Imagination is the faculty, which is not bound to any particular object in the world that has to govern what we say. Then he goes to say that pleasure is the other element that has to be; that beauty has to be experienced as pleasure, and the theory does say something that is culturally specific, that pleasure comes from the experience of the harmony of the faculties. The free play of imagination is pleasurable, when within certain principles of harmony and order. This really is a kind of formalism, because it is not bound by the particular aesthetic object. This is one of the fullest senses of expression theory means, the expression of the mind's capacity rather then the direct reading out of the object itself. So, what is aesthetic beauty, what is aesthetic judgment? Aesthetic judgment has to do with the sensuous form. So it obviously has to do with some kind of sensuous medium, some kind of visual or auditory stuff, which is probably what art is about, a sensuous form producing a harmony of the faculties that are released from normal judgments like science, and hence free to notice and explore structural relations and patterns as such. Not tied to condition or use or even the abstract universality of mere concepts (that is where singularity comes in). The abstract universality of mere concepts is there is a dog; the abstract concept of "dog" is the universal organization of all particular dogs. Here pleasure is excited which would not occur in logical form. So remember there are sensuous pleasures that are different from cognition; thus, scientific cognition has nothing to do with pleasure, it solely has to do with truth. So art is something that is disinterested, so therefore, it is relieved from the normal kinds of pleasures or normal kinds of things, but it is pleasure and in that respect, it is different from logic or reason. Art is not something useful and you have to pick out what it isn't and say that yes aesthetic judgments can be made and there is such a thing as beauty. However, it doesn't operate the same way as normal reason does, it doesn't operate the way practical reason does, and it is not mere cognition because it has elements of sensuality and pleasure. The universality part of art has to do with disinterest and Kant is filling out the concept a little bit more. Kant argues that disinterest opens the door for the mind to enjoy its faculties independent of the usual ways in which the faculties are applied. The usual ways the faculties are applied are in science, the scientific accounts of nature, practical reasons like, "how do I get this thing done," these are the faculties that reach out towards something to understand. The artwork is obviously something that is out there, but with the power of aesthetic appreciation with artwork is not simply in the artwork but in the mind, the appreciation of the work by way of the mind's faculties and experience of pleasure. Thus, Kant argues that everyone has there own taste, but the concept of the beautiful is universal. For Kant, the beautiful is a special characteristic. Thus, people can't deny an aesthetic judgment of taste. This sounds like Kant believes in cultural and foundational forms of beauty, which he observed in his Prussian society. I recommend this work for anyone interested in philosophy and philosophy of art. 24 of 36 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars One of the toughest reads for layman or intellectual, March 30, 1998 By  Eduardo Navas([e-mail]) (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews This review is from: Critique of Judgement (Hafner Library of Classics) (Paperback) Kant is by far one of the hardest philosophers to understand. Perhaps the toughest part is that Kant ruminates for several pages on the same subject. If the reader lets go and takes the reading with a trance-like state, then the reading is not so hard to understand. Another suggestion: read the first part of the sentence and skip all the commas, and read the very last part of the sentence; then go back and read the whole sentence including all the phrases in between the main clause. This will open up the eyes to understanding all the tangents Kant tends to take. A must must must read for those who want to understand the philosophical development of "man and nature" and its progressive development to our post-structural times. Enjoy the pleasure ... or pain of reading this wonderful book.		Ad feedback   Most Recent Customer Reviews 5.0 out of 5 stars Aesthetics, Teleology, and Kant This book, the 'Critique of Judgement', is the third volume in Immanuel Kant's Critique project, which began with 'Critique of Pure Reason' and continued in 'Critique of Practical... Read more Published on October 7, 2005 by FrKurt Messick 2.0 out of 5 stars You kan't get away from your own presuppositions Kant is a genius; I give him that. Still, his primary problem is that he presupposes in all his philosophy that there can be nothing beyond the natural and material world. Read more Published on June 10, 2004 by jcbondservant 3.0 out of 5 stars Reductive and, in parts, outmoded aesthetics The "Critique of Judgement" is Kant's third and crowning work of his critical-transcendental philosophy. Read more Published on September 23, 2000 by TheIrrationalMan 5.0 out of 5 stars Got aesthetics? This is the root of modern (is there any other?) aesthetic. Kant's third critique completes the circle of the trascendental philosphy; perhaps this is the most impotant book of... Read more Published on February 16, 1999 Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews

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Product Details

• Paperback: 434 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (October 26, 1978)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198245890
• ISBN-13: 978-0198245896
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 4.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,035,170 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Someday we will understand this book, April 21, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Critique of Judgment (Great Books in Philosophy) (Paperback)

The Critique of the Power of Judgment (the 3rd Critique) is the most important work in Modern philosophical aesthetics. The Guyer and Pluhar editions are to be preferred to that of Bernard, as the first two have more extenisve notes, and better translations, including of the First Introduction.

The 3rd Critique presents a vision of beauty, sublimity, and art that avoids reduction of them to them to the biological, a la Nietzsche or Freud. Instead, Kant describes the *justification* of reflective aesthetic judgments in terms of the conditions for using jugment, stressing the contemplative and harmonious character of the experience of beauty. Beauty is linked to cognitive and moral betterment; sublimity, a secondary subject, is discussed more purely in terms of it connection with morality.

The work is difficult; however, there is no substitute for close reading of the whole work. (Certainly not Schiller, who goes far beyond Kant in claiming beauty and art as foundational for knowledge). The 3rd Critique is still very contemporary in its import, including its theory of disinterestedness, which is compatible with intelligent accounts of affect.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kant's argument for finding the universal concept of beauty, December 26, 2008

By	Michael A Neulander "Political Philosophy" (VA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Critique of Judgment (Hackett Publishing) (Paperback)

I read this book for a graduate seminar on the philosophy of art. Kant is one of the major figures in expression theory. What we understand as aesthetics changed only recently. Kant lays this out well in his "Critique of Judgment," which is one of his easier books to comprehend! Science and math development was momentous in re-interpreting how nature is understood, and all this starts in his time. The modern science narrative that says ancient thought erred; caused a split between science and philosophy. Scientific method and math causes nature to be seen in a "mechanistic" way, there are no "value" judgments anymore so this valueless nature by science caused the split because nature can't explain values anymore. Thus, philosophy finds that "values" are in humans, not in nature, we are the "location" of values now. Beauty, which is a value, is an idea in our minds. This expression theory says something about us it is in our minds. Kant agrees with this notion of how modern science operates especially in "Critique of Pure Reason." However, with questions of art he doesn't rely on science.

Kant begins that there is such a thing as an experience of beauty, and that we normally presuppose that it must be compelling rather than just mere opinion unlike taste in food. Then he asks why would there be such a thing? He is now trying to lay out possible answers to that question. In the experience of beauty, the mind gets a special perspective on its own powers. Thus, this special perspective is free of the normal constraints of the things we do in our lives like knowing and worrying. Kant realizes that the aesthetic experience is subjective; it is in the human mind not in reality. He wants to make artistic judgments. Not just interested in individual subjectivity, he looks for a "universal" character of experience of judgment. It is not real useful to just catalogue people's subjective opinions. Kant says inter-subjective principle is part of the human mind as more of a collective. Thus, humans can make judgment. Kant's idea of taste is not to merely have a subjective opinion; people have a kind of competency they have discernment. The difficulty in this notion is, how does one know when they find a universal.

Kant astutely argues that one can't argue towards an aesthetic judgment like in logic, aesthetics is subjective but he wants humans to be able to say; "this painting is beautiful, and not just to me." Important point: is there such a thing as subjective universality? This is his dilemma, although he thinks there is if you can use the principle of "disinterest." The realm of subjectivity is realm of interests. Once one is divorced of all normal interest, one can view art with a "disinterested" view. This notion of disinterest screens out allot but has to be connected to pleasure but not mere opinion universally. The other important element of disinterest has been the continuing idea and even could be something that could be applicable to any area of art. There is something about art that has some relationship to a "pause" from normal relationships. There is something special about artworks that even though there was no such thing as a museum in Greece, Greek statuary and architecture was all part of the cityscape, part of the actual landscape and livingscape of Greece, and therefore part of the city so no such thing as a museum. However, whenever a statue was put up or a temple, or a play was put on, that would seem to be something different from the normal relationships with objects either in terms of using them for some practical purpose and therefore using them up giving the works some special reserve, special status. Disinterest wouldn't require that it have the subjectivism term because you would simply say that the whole point of art could be disengaged normal ways of engaging things, even if it didn't have a subjective theory of expression. According to this notion of "disinterest," the idea of political art would be a contradiction in terms. Art as applied as nothing more than serving political needs. Like how the Soviet Union used art for nothing else but to serve the workers revolution. Kant is saying, the whole idea of engaging beauty is to be divorced from the normal ways of things, and that would include end purposes, goals, and outcomes.

Distinction between subjective universal validity and objective universal validity.
An important argument Kant makes is that all judgments of "taste" and "beauty" are of a singular judgment. If it is unique, it cannot fit in the universal concept of beauty. There are no formulas, principles, or rules for identifying beauty. There is only the "possibility" of aesthetic judgments, so he can't list items of art that conform to his aesthetic judgment. Kant says something about art is different than everything else it doesn't have interest, axioms, rules, can't list things, but it has some positives, it is pleasurable, it draws us, it satisfies us, it isn't pleasure of practical needs or pleasure of knowledge or any interests. It doesn't excite our personal desires, it just gives us a direct experience of pleasure. Thus, Kant gives an intellectual picture of aesthetic taste and he says it is always a species of pleasure. The category of disinterest provides two notions for Kant, one is freedom, and the other is universality. By freedom, he means, freedom from both desire and knowledge, and that is the interesting part.

Another important concept for Kant is that the free play of imagination is one of the features that make up beauty. Free play of imagination of art gives pleasure because the mind is free from normal cognitive needs, logical rules, or empirical findings, practical needs, and therefore it has an element of openness. Thus, imagination is very important here, imagination is the ability to conjure up something that is not a fact in the real world. The free play in the imagination in art gives pleasure, because here the mind can simply enjoy its own cognitive powers independent of the constraints of the other realms, like science, math, logic, and other practical needs. Free play opens the idea that the artist has allot of leeway. The artist is not bound by facts and realities, nor is the audience someone who has to have that attitude either. Therefore, when you are looking at a painting or you are reading a poem or listening to music in this mode you are not bound by other ways of knowing. You are going to be free of that. What does that mean? First of all, all art is going to have a tangible means of presentation through sound or sight or color, texture, structure, so forth. This excites pleasure because art is a less ordered realm than other areas. Kant wouldn't say you could take pleasure in something that was chaotic. Kant says you can't force aesthetic judgment on others, but beauty has a universal claim, that is the tightrope he is walking. It is complicated, beauty is not chaotic, but not private opinion.

Disinterest and free play of mind is two sides of same coin. Imagination is not bound by normal modes of knowing, or normal needs or desires so it is associated with free play. Normally our desires are compelling to us. Imagination is the faculty, which is not bound to any particular object in the world that has to govern what we say. Then he goes to say that pleasure is the other element that has to be; that beauty has to be experienced as pleasure, and the theory does say something that is culturally specific, that pleasure comes from the experience of the harmony of the faculties. The free play of imagination is pleasurable, when within certain principles of harmony and order. This really is a kind of formalism, because it is not bound by the particular aesthetic object. This is one of the fullest senses of expression theory means, the expression of the mind's capacity rather then the direct reading out of the object itself.

So, what is aesthetic beauty, what is aesthetic judgment? Aesthetic judgment has to do with the sensuous form. So it obviously has to do with some kind of sensuous medium, some kind of visual or auditory stuff, which is probably what art is about, a sensuous form producing a harmony of the faculties that are released from normal judgments like science, and hence free to notice and explore structural relations and patterns as such. Not tied to condition or use or even the abstract universality of mere concepts (that is where singularity comes in). The abstract universality of mere concepts is there is a dog; the abstract concept of "dog" is the universal organization of all particular dogs. Here pleasure is excited which would not occur in logical form. So remember there are sensuous pleasures that are different from cognition; thus, scientific cognition has nothing to do with pleasure, it solely has to do with truth. So art is something that is disinterested, so therefore, it is relieved from the normal kinds of pleasures or normal kinds of things, but it is pleasure and in that respect, it is different from logic or reason.

Art is not something useful and you have to pick out what it isn't and say that yes aesthetic judgments can be made and there is such a thing as beauty. However, it doesn't operate the same way as normal reason does, it doesn't operate the way practical reason does, and it is not mere cognition because it has elements of sensuality and pleasure. The universality part of art has to do with disinterest and Kant is filling out the concept a little bit more. Kant argues that disinterest opens the door for the mind to enjoy its faculties independent of the usual ways in which the faculties are applied. The usual ways the faculties are applied are in science, the scientific accounts of nature, practical reasons like, "how do I get this thing done," these are the faculties that reach out towards something to understand. The artwork is obviously something that is out there, but with the power of aesthetic appreciation with artwork is not simply in the artwork but in the mind, the appreciation of the work by way of the mind's faculties and experience of pleasure.

Thus, Kant argues that everyone has there own taste, but the concept of the beautiful is universal. For Kant, the beautiful is a special characteristic. Thus, people can't deny an aesthetic judgment of taste. This sounds like Kant believes in cultural and foundational forms of beauty, which he observed in his Prussian society.

I recommend this work for anyone interested in philosophy and philosophy of art.

24 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the toughest reads for layman or intellectual, March 30, 1998

By	Eduardo Navas([e-mail]) (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Critique of Judgement (Hafner Library of Classics) (Paperback)

Kant is by far one of the hardest philosophers to understand. Perhaps the toughest part is that Kant ruminates for several pages on the same subject. If the reader lets go and takes the reading with a trance-like state, then the reading is not so hard to understand. Another suggestion: read the first part of the sentence and skip all the commas, and read the very last part of the sentence; then go back and read the whole sentence including all the phrases in between the main clause. This will open up the eyes to understanding all the tangents Kant tends to take. A must must must read for those who want to understand the philosophical development of "man and nature" and its progressive development to our post-structural times. Enjoy the pleasure ... or pain of reading this wonderful book.