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Kant and the Claims of Taste

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Guyer's critical reading of Kant's Critique of the Power of Judgment is thought provoking, but holds no punches. Guyer reads Kant with a discerning eye, often holding Kant to task for his inability to stick to a coherent methodology in the manner of his first and second critiques. However, aesthetes everywhere know the value of Kant's acknowledgement of beauty and the sublime, and Guyer is no different. Though he goes out of his way to dismantle and rebuild Kant's arguments, memorably in Kant's confusing logic in the arrangement and interaction between the moments in the Analytic of the Beautiful, Guyer's work is rewarding.

Upon reading Guyer's analysis, I gained new appreciation for the breadth, and indeed, risk of Kant's third critique.

Paul Guyer is not only one of the greatest Professors that I have ever had, he is also one of the greatest writers that I have ever read. Dr. Guyer's work on Kant stands above other fine Philosophers' works not only because of its originality, but because of the beauty of his writing. Dr. Guyer, who is currently the President of the American Society for Aesthetics and the American Philosophical Association, won the APA's Best Book prize for Kant and The Claims of Taste upon its initial release in 1979 (Harvard). This work, Dr. Guyer's first monograph, is, along with Kant and The Claims of Taste (Cambridge), one of two Masterworks on Kantian Aesthetics and Epistemology. Both works, particularly when read for the goal of understanding Kant's Philosophy, are insurmountable pieces of Philosophical Literature.