Pragmatic Theories Flashcards
Burke & Kant
Subject
A subject is a conscious self that perceives.
An object
An object is an unconscious thing that does not
perceive but is, rather, perceived by a subject.
What epistemological concern do both Burke and Kant raise regarding art?
Both Burke and Kant raide the epistemological response to art, which is subjective,
concerned with the mental experience of the
subject.
How is judgment acquired and what process lead to its development?
Judgment is gained through an increase in
understanding brought about by a long, close
study of the object of sensation.
What is the relationship between judgment and reason?
Judgment is a higher critical faculty that is closely
linked to reason
What role does imagination play in relation to sense perceptions?
Imagination takes the raw material offered by sense
perceptions and recombines it in a new way.
What components contribute to the formation of the faculty of taste?
The faculty of taste is the mental product of
imagination plus judgment.
What direction does imagination typically lean towards?
Imagination tends toward synthesis.
In what direction does judgment typically incline?
Judgment tends toward analysis
What role does sensibility, or imagination, play in taste according to Burke, and what does he ultimately prioritize as the true foundation of good taste?
Sensibility (i.e. imagination) is essential to taste, but
Burke finally gives preference to judgment as the
true foundation of good taste.
How do Romantics diverge from Burke’s preference?
Romantics will shift this preference, privileging
imagination over judgment, synthesis over
analysis.
For Burke, what types of terms are “sublime” and “beautiful” considered to be?
Sublime and beautiful are epistemological terms
for Burke
Beauty and sublimity are not qualities of the
object.
Beauty and sublimity are faculties of perception
that can be categorised.
How is the sublime defined in terms of its effect on human emotions?
The sublime is that which inspires in us feelings of
awe.
Astonishment
Astonishment is that moment in which all motion
is suspended and our minds are filled totally by
an object or thought
How is the sublime experienced?
The sublime is experienced not only through eye
and ear, but through all the senses.
How is the sublime associated with terror, despite the absence of actual danger, as compared to Aristotle’s concept of catharsis?
The sublime is linked to terror, yet no actual danger
must be present (cf. Aristotle’s catharsis).
Kant wrote
Critique of Judgment (1790), it explores the
nature of aesthetic
perception.
How does Kant characterize the judgment of the beautiful
For Kant, the judgment of the beautiful is purely
subjective.
Judgments of beauty are..
Judgments of beauty are not cognitive (logical,
rational) but aesthetic
How does Kant conceptualize art as a manifestation of human freedom rooted in rational agency?
Kant understands art as a practice of human freedom
deriving from our rational agency. The creative drive is an elemental, primordial human
need.
Cognitive judgments
presuppose
fixed ideas and work to establish
fixed concepts.
Aesthetic judgments
work through
our feelings and neither rest on any
concepts nor seek to generate any.
What is the basis of aesthetic judgment
Aesthetic judgment rests in a non-conceptual
awareness of a harmony between imagination and
understanding.
What challenge does the concept of the beautiful pose to thinking and discourse
The beautiful challenges thinking and discourse
because it claims to present that which no language
can adequately express.
Purposeless purpose
A work of art is an end in itself in the mind of someone making a proper aesthetic judgment.
The pleasurable
is an interested emotion that seeks
some kind of gratification from the object.
The beautiful
is purely disinterested: it seeks nothing
from the object and makes no demands on it.
According to Kantian reasoning, what characterizes aesthetic judgment?
In the Kantian reasoning, aesthetic judgment is a
free and disinterested delight. Aesthetic judgment is indifferent to the existence
of the object and free of all internal prejudice and
external restraint.
subjective universality
The judgment of beauty is purely subjective, yet
paradoxically, universally felt
What distinguishes aesthetic judgment from cognition
Aesthetic judgment engages imagination and
understanding for pleasure, not for cognition.
Kantian aesthetic judgment focuses
on form
because form has a finality about it.
How may a poem’s form be approached in terms of its purpose
A poem’s form may be studied as an end in itself,
as a purposeless purpose; as such, it lies in the
realm of aesthetic judgment.
Aesthetic forms appeal
to the imagination
Imagination
is the spontaneous, independent
mental power that is both enlivened and set
free by aesthetic ideas.
What characterizes the subjective experience with beauty
With beauty, the subjective experience is
comparable to a feeling of harmony in the free
play of imagination and understanding.
How does the subjective experience with sublimity manifest itself
With sublimity, the subjective experience
manifests itself in terms of a disharmony (or
struggle) between imagination and reason.
The beautiful is characterised by:
1) boundedness in form;
2) presentation of quality;
3) a feeling of life’s being furthered;
4) a play in the imagination;
5) a positive pleasure.
The sublime is characterised by:
1) formal unboudedness;
2) presentation of quantity;
3) a momentary inhibition of vital forces;
4) an emotion of seriousness;
5) a negative pleasure that both attracts and repels
the mind as admiration and respect.
What response does the experience of the sublime elicit
Experience of the sublime forces imagination to
turn to reason in our inability to comprehend its
magnitude or stand up to its might.
the Kantian catharsis
Humans are supra-sensible creatures. We have an
ability think beyond the given boundaries, to endure
and transcend pain and terror
How does Neoclassicism reconcile grounding art in nature while defining art by its differences from nature?
Neoclassicism grounds art in nature “while
continuing to define art by its differences from
nature”
What is art’s function according to neoclassicism
For neoclassicism, art’s function is to show
nature at her best through decorum.
Because of Kant, Romanticism …
discovers art in
nature
Genius vs. decorum - Kant
Kant opposes the spirit of imitation to genius. Genius is marked by originality and inspiration that
cannot be based on rules and role models.
Kant’s notion of genius
enables him to reconcile
the idea of purpose/intent with artistic activity. The artist has a ‘natural endowment’, a special
gift that enables him to create artworks.
How does the Kantian concept of genius differ from the neoclassical sense of decorum
The Kantian concept of genius stands in contrast
to the neoclassical sense of decorum.
What do Burke and Kant emphasize regarding the aesthetic experience
Burke and Kant inaugurate an epistemological
conception of the aesthetic experience and they
highlight the pragmatic dimension of aesthetic
judgment, at the heart of which lies the
perceiving subject.
How do Kant and Burke view the beautiful and the sublime
For Kant and Burke, the beautiful and the
sublime are epistemological terms which
organise the ways in which we relate our
subjectivity to the world.
What is the basis of the modern conception of aesthetic judgment according to Kantian reasoning
The Kantian reasoning about art as a
purposeless purpose lies at the basis of the
modern conception of aesthetic judgment,
paving the way for critical theories which focus
on the internal relations within a work of art.
