Beyond the Pleasure Principle: A Kantian Aesthetics of Autonomy

Estetika: The European Journal of Aesthetics 58 (1):1-18 (2021)
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Abstract

Aesthetic hedonism is the view that to be aesthetically good is to please. For most aesthetic hedonists, aesthetic normativity is hedonic normativity. This paper argues that Kant's third critique contains resources for a non-hedonic account of aesthetic normativity as sourced in autonomy as self-legislation. A case is made that the account is also Kant's because it ties his aesthetics into a key theme of his larger philosophy.

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Author's Profile

Dominic McIver Lopes
University of British Columbia

Citations of this work

Toward a Communitarian Theory of Aesthetic Value.Nick Riggle - 2022 - Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 80 (1):16-30.
Aesthetic obligations.Robbie Kubala - 2020 - Philosophy Compass 15 (12):e12712.
Higher-Order Evidence in Aesthetics.Daniel Whiting - 2023 - British Journal of Aesthetics 63 (2):143-155.
Autonomy and Community in Kant's Theory of Taste.Jessica J. Williams - forthcoming - The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism.

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References found in this work

Kant’s Ethical Thought.Allen W. Wood - 1999 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
Being for Beauty: Aesthetic Agency and Value.Dominic Lopes - 2018 - Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
The practice of moral judgment.Barbara Herman - 1985 - Journal of Philosophy 82 (8):414-436.
Aesthetic Hedonism and Its Critics.Servaas Van der Berg - 2020 - Philosophy Compass 15 (1):e12645.

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