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Kant On The Beautiful, Justin P. Amoroso

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis looks at Kant’s question about the antagonism between freedom and determinism and how he tried to reconcile them through aesthetics. I begin the thesis by sketching the influences on Kant’s aesthetics, by looking at the problem that arose after he completed his first two critiques, and by defining his three faculties. From there I examine his four moments of beauty. Next, I ask how beauty symbolizes morality. In the conclusion I submit a possible answer how beauty can resolve the antagonism between freedom and determinism. The tentative answer is as follows.

According to Kant, beauty doesn’t require us …