PHIL41340 Kant on Aesthetics & Nature

Academic Year 2016/2017

This seminar will consist in the close analysis and interpretation of one of the most intriguing and influential books in the history of philosophy: Immanuel Kant's _Critique of the Power of Judgment_ , i.e. the 'Third Critique'. (The most recent translation is P. Guyer & E. Matthews translation, Cambridge Univ. Pr., 2000.)

In this text Kant attempts to unify the realms of moral freedom and deterministic nature through a conception of our capacity for purposive, reflecting judgment. In reflecting on nature and its products we seem to have a justified but problematic sense that nature itself is not only a lawful machine but is also purposively ordered: that nature exhibits phenomena that are both beautiful and sublime, as if made for us to admire; that nature's living organisms and their parts are exquisitely designed in a way that requires explanation in terms of purposes. The difficulty, however, is that nature as portrayed by physics apparently has no room for objective purposes. Having rejected any objective knowledge of nature's 'design' or purposive teleology in his famous Critique of Pure Reason, how does Kant's conception of our power of reflecting judgment supposedly ground the a priori validity of any such principles? What is Kant's conception of aesthetic judgment, and how is it supposed to be objectively valid while granting that taste is, at least in some sense, 'in the eye of the beholder'? How does Kant's conception of biology fare when we considered in light of our own Darwinian evolutionary conceptions of biology? These are the sorts of philosophical, systematic, and historical questions that will occupy us in this seminar.

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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

Having completed this module, students will be able to:

- Articulate the systematic role of Kant's Third Critique, the Critique of Judgment, both within Kant's own 'critical' philosophy, and as it relates to perennial and historical problems pertaining to aesthetic beauty and natural teleology.
- Analyze some exceptionally difficult texts and concepts, and defend one's interpretation of such texts in detail and with clear arguments.
- Reflect creatively and insightfully on issues raised by modern science in relation to our freedom and to various conceptions of aesthetic beauty and our knowledge of it; as well as on the problems and hopes raised by the purposive but contingent order we find in nature and its products.
- To think clearly and argue persuasively about the significance of the above concepts both in Kant's complex philosophy and in relation to more recent ways of thinking about these matters.

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Lectures

24

Autonomous Student Learning

226

Total

250

 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.



 
Description % of Final Grade Timing
Essay: End of semester essay

65

Coursework (End of Trimester)
Continuous Assessment: short essay and/or assignments

35

Varies over the Trimester

Compensation

This module is not passable by compensation

Resit Opportunities

In-semester assessment

Remediation

By research essay.