These selections come from a portion of the Critique of Judgment where Kant interweaves discussions of two related topics, for which he uses the labels “genius” and “aesthetic ideas.” Each of these constitutes a link between Kant and philosophers of the next century who we will go on to read. This assignment directs you to passages where he is focusing on genius; we’ll look at his discussion of aesthetic ideas on Wed.

You will need to follow both the sections and the pages noted above to identify the specific passages we will discuss. When reading them, you should both think about Kant’s distinction between genius and taste and compare Kant’s idea to the neoplatonic idea of inspiration as divine madness (following Plato’s Phaedrus). Kant’s claim that “nature gives the rule to art” through genius (§46, HK 314) is hard to interpret; it may help to note that ‘genius’ has a use (going back to Latin) to speak of natural or inborn talents or dispositions.

Although we will not be considering the passages where Kant focuses attention on what he calls “aesthetic ideas,” he will use the term occasionally in his discussion of genius. You can find a summary account of what he means by it in the middle of p. 320 (opposite the beginning of the second part of this assignment). The key features of an aesthetic idea is that it is not associated with a definite concept and has imaginative content that goes beyond what could be captured by a definite concept. At least one of the things Kant seems to have in mind is a rich metaphor.

Probably the most natural issue for us to discuss is Kant’s claims about the relation between taste and genius, specifically that, while genius is closely associated with “beautiful art,” it is taste that is the fundamental requirement. (See the end of §48, HK 317, and §50, HK 322.) Ask yourself which of the two you take to be more important for the fine arts and why.

Finally, here are a couple of notes to help with some specific points in the reading.