Aesthetics and Subjectivity - A Small Note
When we consider something like a beautiful scenery, we might think of it as an ideal form. Compare this with a sound that brings pleasure, such as the strumming of guitar strings. Are these two experiences the same? No. The sound is not necessarily an ideal but could be perceived as one.
Pure reason concerns itself with understanding the world. Practical reason, on the other hand, operates in the realm of desires, pleasure, and pain. Judgment acts as the bridge between cognition and desire, connecting thinking with feeling.
The role of reason differs depending on its context. In nature, it helps us understand. In ethics, it prescribes actions. In matters of pleasure, it provides judgment. So how do judgment and understanding relate? Pure reason shapes our perception of the world, while practical reason influences our choices through free will.
Where does the super-sensible domain lie? It emerges when freedom and Nature intersect. This leads to the question: why are we able to think about absurdities? Aesthetics, which shapes our desires, precedes ethics. Aesthetics refers to form and perception—how we intuit the world.
When we perceive sense data, we form concepts. These concepts can combine rationally through deduction or induction. But we also make creative associations, which we call imagination, that help us deal with possibilities. Judgment, based on wisdom, moves between the universal and the particular.
Finality is imputed according to the limits of our understanding. Returning to the guitar example, are we hard-wired for pleasure? Things like sweets, flowers, and fragrances suggest that we are. The sources of natural pleasure often relate to the emergence of patterns, turning disorder into order, which imputes finality.
In the case of a beautiful scenery, our response is subjective.