Art as the Possibility of Transition From Freedom to Nature in Kant’s Critical Philosophy
Gamze KeskinCritique of the Power of Judgment is the third work of Kant’s critical philosophy. Kant states that he has put this work on paper to complement his critical philosophy. This statement of completion constitutes the transition that is required between the theoretical and practical areas of philosophy. According to Kant, transition from the theortical area, or natural area to the practical area, or the area of freedom is not possible. Moreover, principals in the area of freedom need to be realised in the area of nature. Kant has presented a system that establishes art as the bridge from the area of freedom to the area of nature. With regard to this system, genius is the skill that provides the rules for art through nature and as one definition of beautiful in Critique of the Power of Judgment, Kant identifies beautiful as the transition of aesthetical ideas thorough genius. This transition occurs as a result of the judgment of taste by means of the free play of imagination and understanding. My aim in this study is to clarify how imagination that is not limited by understanding widens up and is presented as [non-conceptional] aestethical ideas through art. In order to put forth this representation with all its clarity, I will try to elucidate the meaning of the transition from the practical area of philosophy to its theoretical area, which is crucial according to Kant. In this contect, I wil emphasize the nature of judgments of taste, relation of nature-art, classification of fine arts, and the role of genius in emerging aestethical ideas.
Kant’ın Eleştirel Felsefesinde Özgürlükten Doğaya Geçişin İmkânı Olarak Sanat
Gamze KeskinYargı Gücünün Eleştirisi, Kant’ın eleştirel felsefesinin üçüncü temel eseridir. Kant bu eseri, eleştirel felsefesinin tamamlayıcısı olarak kaleme aldığını bildirir. Bu tamamlanma ifadesi, felsefenin teorik ile pratik alanları arasında olması gereken geçişin imkânını teşkil eder. O’na göre teorik alandan yani doğa alanından, pratik alana yani özgürlük alanına geçiş mümkün değildir. Öte yandan özgürlük alanındaki ilkelerin doğada edimsel kılınması gereklidir. Kant, özgürlük alanından doğaya geçişin köprüsü olarak sanatı belirlediği bir sistem ortaya koymuştur. Bu sisteme göre deha, doğa aracılığıyla sanata kural veren yetenektir ve Kant, Yargı Gücünün Eleştirisi’nde ‘güzel’e ilişkin tanımlarından birisinde, güzeli deha aracılığıyla estetik idelerin aktarımı olarak belirler. Bu aktarım ise anlama yetisi ve hayal gücünün özgür oyununun sonucunda doğan beğeni yargıları aracılığıyla gerçekleşir. Bu çalışmada anlama yetisi tarafından sınırlandırılmamış hayal gücünün genişleyip, aklın idelerine ulaşma arzusu sonucunda deha tarafından görüde sanat aracılığıyla [kavramsız] estetik ideler olarak nasıl sergilendiğini açık kılmayı amaçlamaktayım. Bu sergilenişi bütünlüğüyle açıkça ortaya koyabilmek adına felsefenin pratik alanından teorik alanına -Kant’a göre elzem olan- geçişin anlamını açık kılmaya çalışacağım. Bu doğrultuda, beğeni yargılarının doğası, doğa-sanat ilişkisi, güzel sanatların sınıflandırılması, estetik idelerin ortaya çıkışında dehanın rolü üzerinde duracağım.
There are three essential works in Kant’s critical philosophy; the first is Critique of Pure Reason: here he discussed the conditions of theoretical philosophy, a priori principles and the law making of reason. Second is Critique of the Practical Reason: in this work he explains the practical side of reason and the principles of ethics by associating it with the faculty of desire. Third is Critique of the Power of Judgment: in this work, while he states that there is an abyss between the two areas of philosophy (theoretical and practical); he establishes the possibility of transition between these two areas. Transition from natüre, that represents the theoretical area of philosophy, to the practical area of philosophy, or freedom is not possible. Moreover, the principles of ethics need to be made concrete in the area of nature. Kant places art as the bridge over the gap between the area of nature and the area of freedom. Art cannot have its own ground like the nature and freedom. However it can unite as it associates these two areas. In Critique of the Power of Judgment, Kant mentions special kinds of judgments that form our aesthetical experience: judgments of taste. Judgments of taste, unlike cognitive judgments are based on the experience of the subject. These so-called ‘subjective’ judgments arise from feelings of pleasure or displeasure through the aesthetical experience of the subject. Kant, by associating the judgments of taste with beautiful in Critique of the Power of Judgment analyses the nature of judgments of taste with four moments, under the section Analytics of Beautiful. Judgment of taste is: disinterested, universal but subjective, purposiveness and necessary. According to Kant, ‘beautiful’ does not form in the object: the reason why I find the object beautiful is the judgment I make due to the pleasure I take as a result of the harmony of my cognitive faculties. In other words, what makes the judgment of beautiful is the subject. Therefore, as beautiful, the focus is not on the object but the subject that attributes the beauty to that object. However, there is still the object/work of art that mediates the emergence of this feeling and in order to move to the definitions on work of art through the role of the object in judgment of taste, the keyword is “form”. Without discriminating between art and fine arts, Kant tackles the fine arts starting from all our acts in nature with a systematical approach. According to Kant, art is apart from nature, science and craft. He groups the fine arts under three main categories: Arts of speech (rhetoric and poetry), pictorial arts (sculpture, architecture, painting, art of pleasure gardens), and beautiful play of sensations (color and music). Kant positions the fine arts under the three categories where he has determined their aesthetical value. From this aspect, he arranges them from the most valuable to the least valuable in this order: poetry, painting and music. The talent that produces fine art is genius. Genius has the productive faculty by birth and nature can provide the laws of art through genius. When creating a work of art, genius cannot show how it puts its thoughts full of ideas together because it does not know how, therefore it cannot teach this to anyone. According to Kant, this is the main distinction between a genius and a scientist. However, as the one that sets the rules of art, the talent of genius that it has taken from nature should still have an attribute. For him, this attribute is the reflection of the ideas of the reason in nature through the work of art. The talent that would do this must have understanding, taste, imagination and spirit. Spirit is the principle of genius putting forth aesthetical ideas. Furthermore, aesthetical ideas are not different to the ideas of the reason. They are the semblance of the ideas of reason. Genius is the talent of presenting the ideas of reason in nature. In summary, genius is the person that can enable the transition from the area of freedom to the area of natüre and achieves this by forming nature. This enables the presentation of the semblance of ideas of reason in the person directed towards it by means of the work of art it produces.
