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The Moral Value of Artistic Beauty in Kant

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 March 2011

Joseph Cannon
Joseph Cannon*
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

In the third Critique, Kant argues that it is “always the mark of a good soul” to take an immediate interest in natural beauty, because it indicates an interest in harmony between nature and moral freedom. He, however, denies that there can be a similarly significant interest in artistic beauty. I argue that Kant ought not to deny this value to artistic beauty because his account of fine art as the joint product of the “natural gift” of genius and the discipline of taste commits him to the claim that artistic beauty expresses such a harmony between nature and freedom.

Type
Articles
Information
Kantian Review , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , 08 March 2011 , pp. 113 - 126
Copyright
copyright © Kantian Review 2011

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