An Accord in/on Kantian Aesthetics (or the Sensus Communis: Attunement in a Community of Diverse Sites of Purposiveness)

Abstract

Kant's Critique of Judgment is a storehouse full of provocative concepts and structures, which is why, since at least the 1970's, many contemporary Kant scholars and philosophers of other sorts have attempted to mine and explicate this text to varying degrees of success. Among these concepts and structures, there are a few that continue to evade complete elucidation. One of the most well tread, albeit still contested, grounds that appears in the third Critique is without Picking up from some recent interpretations of Kantian aesthetics, I contend that it is possible to discover at least three forms of purposiveness without purpose in aesthetic judgments. A second concept, the sensus communis, I will contend, is as important as the three sites of purposiveness without purpose. In fact, I will show how the sensus communis, in its ternary form, can be mapped onto the three sites of purposiveness without purpose; the two concepts cannot be separated. Finally, this mapping will allow for an attempt at what I could refer to as an inconstruction of the Deduction of Aesthetic Judgments that will engage many of the long-standing questions surrounding this text.