Similarities Between Kant And Burke

Reference: Roger McMichaels. A Deeper Look at Beauty. New York: Graymark, 1995. The quoted material is taken from page

The paper starts with multiple definitions of what beauty is defined as and moves to what the experience of beauty is.

In moving away from the objective property-based or perfectionist theories of the medieval and early modern periods to this sort of subject-based aesthetic, Kant did not intend to give up the idea that judgments of beauty are universalizable. Accordingly, much of the first part of the Critique is given to showing how one person’s reflective aesthetic judgments can be legitimately "imputed" to or expected from all properly-situated human subjects.(3) The famous "Deduction of Judgments of Taste" (§ 38) provides a sketch of this argument. Very briefly, Kant argues that since the faculties under consideration are "required for possible cognition as such," it follows that all who (through communicating with others reveal their ability to) cognize anything are susceptible to the same experience of faculties in free harmony, and to the concomitant aesthetic pleasure. As long as the subject takes himself to be conscientiously beholding the object under appropriate circumstances (e.g. without interest, prejudice, etc.) he can take his judgment of taste to imply in an "a priori" fashion that under similar circumstances other well-functioning human beings likewise will be pleased by it.(4)

Edmund Burke a theorist stated in his works that, "…Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain and danger; that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime" [2] . The critic attempts to assemble an authoritative definition of the sublime here.

Within Keats’ works of Literature, Sarah Schulman’s “Empathy,” and Jeffers’ works of literature, all of them together portray a sense of beauty in some way, symbolizing its true meaning. Beauty is along the lines of each of these authors and poets, but represented in various ways, showing that beauty has multiple meanings. Alongside the unique views shown through these authors’ lenses, they all come together to show what beauty can stand for. Also, what emerges the most within these written works is the notion of beauty and how it comes to realization in contrasting circumstances.

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” People hear it all the time, but is this really true? Is one’s perception of beauty defined by their own standards, the world’s standards, or by the standards of the One who created us? For centuries, philosophers have questioned the meaning of beauty, but do not know that the true meaning of beauty is plain and simple. Despite have far we’ve come in society, many still question their own worth and beauty.

While the sublime began as something traditionally beautiful and natural, like a sunset, it was Burke’s belief that something does not necessarily have to be appealing to be sublime. When experiencing a sublime moment, one is overcome by passion, and therefore can ironically be extended to that which is grotesque. The feeling of complete terror, for instance, can be described as sublime according to Burke. In his essay he writes, “No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear. For fear being an apprehension of pain or death, it operates in a manner that resembles actual pain.

Tracing the roots of this highly significant bond, however, if to adapt them in any historically meaningful way, would then require us to explore the central values that have resonated most, generally speaking. For Edmund Burke, a political philosopher who was noteworthy still for excursions into what’s dubbed “aesthetic theory,” and resulted in the foundation laid for some of the earliest discourse on the sublime, with its specified grounds in beauty and terror. To traverse this line, then, and possibly even indulging onto one side over another, is, as per Burke’s treatise, quite indicative of such a sublime experience, or, “it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling” (Burke 36). Unnecessarily that which

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, is a phrase commonly used in today 's society to make a politically correct assessment of our judgement of beauty. The popularity of this quote has helped convinced the general public that it is an universally truthful statement. This statement suggests that, the perception of beauty is based on an individuals subjective judgement rather than an any empirical justifications. If the majority of the worlds population believes this statement to be true, then why is beauty treated as if it is universal? When we analyze beauty campaigns, it is evident that major corporations are capitalizing on the predominate Euro American standard of beauty. Ad after Ad our minds are bombarded with notions of a hierarchical beauty standard. These ads function as representations of societies cultural values and thus help promote an unattainable standard beauty. This prompts the question of why does our theorization of aesthetic judgement not coordinate with how an individual makes judgements on beauty in the real world? One notion is that society has adopted the theory of eighteenth century philosopher Immanuel Kant 's judgement of taste. In Kant 's book Critique of the Power of Judgement he lays the foundations for the belief that our judgement of beauty has both subjective and objective properties. He supports his theory by claiming that our judgement of beauty is dependent on four main factors quality, necessity, universality, and purposiveness. In

The quest for the ideal is a phenomenon that many people attempt to achieve. As we all know, the quest for the ideal is difficult and complicated by personal experience. The poems, “The Story” by Karen Connelly and the “The Love Song of J.Aflred Prufrock”, by T.S Elliot, as well as the essay “Kant’s Beauty and the Sublime” by Maureen Rousseau explore the peril inherent in the quest for the ideal, which is that in our search for beauty we risk encountering the sublime. The danger of the sublime is that we cannot comprehend the magnitude of the realms of things that are sublime. We ask ourselves why someone would want to risk encountering the sublime. Well, with great risk comes great reward and that is the beauty we

Don Norman highlights the idea about the three levels of human intersections related to how human perceives beauty. He is focusing on the idea of how emotion and beauty are strongly bond. The three levels are visceral, behavioral, and reflective which they establish how emotion changes when we perceive beauty in different ways. For examples, in visceral level, we subconsciously dislike things such as loud sound or bitter taste. In behavioral level, we subconsciously like things that make us feel safe and comfortable. In reflective level, we like things that are fancy and help us get attention. In the end, Don Norman makes a statement that beautiful things tend to work better. However, I am not completely agree with his perspective. To some

The subjective element of beauty involves judgment, not opinion. Many people feel beauty is only something seen by the eyes. St. Thomas Aquinas views beauty in both the supernatural and natural orders. Aquinas lists the attributes of beauty to be found in nature. These are; unity, proportion, and clarity. We will see how these attributes of beauty are seen through the eye and felt by the heart.

Burke's sublime is separated into distinct categories. He categorizes objects of experience by the way in which they impact the senses. Burke associates qualities of "balance," "smoothness," "delicacy" and "color" with the beautiful, while he speaks of the sublime in terms such as "vastness" and "terror" (Burke, 325). Instead Kant dissevers the sublime into the mathematical and the dynamical, where in the mathematical aesthetical comprehension are not a consciousness of a mere more preponderant unit, but the notion of absolute greatness not inhibited with conceptions of constraints. The dynamically sublime is nature considered in an aesthetic judgment as might that has no ascendancy over us and an object can engender a fearfulness without

A commonly mistaken perception of beauty is its need to be aesthetically perfect, but this is not one of its true qualities. As stated

What is beauty? How do we decide who is attractive and who is not? Society is full of information telling us what is beautiful, but what fact is that information based on? The topic of beauty has been studied, analyzed and controversial for centuries. We all know the feeling you can have when you hear a beautiful song that brings joy to your heart, stand in a field of flowers that excites your eyes, or admire a face that is visually pleasing. As human beings, we are all drawn to beauty, but what is it that makes something beautiful? The controversial issue that surrounds beauty is that some believe that true beauty is defined by someone’s outer appearance, while others believe it is something that is experienced through a person’s