name of edification with Ideas of religion, or--as merely belonging
to culture--with Ideas containing a social interest, can in no way,
however they strain the Imagination, lay claim to the honour of
being _sublime_ presentations, unless they leave after them a mental
mood which, although only indirectly, has influence upon the mind’s
consciousness of its strength, and its resolution in reference to that
which involves pure intellectual purposiveness (the supersensible). For
otherwise all these emotions belong only to _motion_, which one would
fain enjoy for the sake of health. The pleasant exhaustion, consequent
upon such disturbance produced by the play of the affections, is an
enjoyment of our well-being arising from the restored equilibrium of
the various vital forces. This in the end amounts to the same thing as
that state which Eastern voluptuaries find so delightful, when they
get their bodies as it were kneaded and all their muscles and joints
softly pressed and bent; only that in this case the motive principle
is for the most part external, in the other case it is altogether
internal. Many a man believes himself to be edified by a sermon, when
indeed there is no edification at all (no system of good maxims); or
to be improved by a tragedy, when he is only glad at his ennui being
happily dispelled. So the Sublime must always have reference to the
_disposition_, _i.e._ to the maxims which furnish to the intellectual
[part] and to the Ideas of Reason a superiority over sensibility.
We need not fear that the feeling of the sublime will lose by so
abstract a mode of presentation,--which is quite negative in respect
of what is sensible,--for the Imagination, although it finds nothing
beyond the sensible to which it can attach itself, yet feels itself
unbounded by this removal of its limitations; and thus that very
abstraction is a presentation of the Infinite, which can be nothing
but a mere negative presentation, but which yet expands the soul.
Perhaps there is no sublimer passage in the Jewish Law than the
command, _Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, nor the
likeness of anything which is in heaven or on the earth or under the
earth_, etc. This command alone can explain the enthusiasm that the
Jewish people in their moral period felt for their religion, when they
compared themselves with other peoples; or explain the pride which
Mahommedanism inspires. The same is true of the moral law and of the
tendency to morality in us. It is quite erroneous to fear that if we
deprive this [tendency] of all that can recommend it to sense it will
only involve a cold lifeless assent and no moving force or emotion. It
is quite the other way, for where the senses see nothing more before
them, and the unmistakable and indelible Idea of morality remains,
it would be rather necessary to moderate the impetus of an unbounded
Imagination, to prevent it from rising to enthusiasm, than through fear
of the powerlessness of these Ideas to seek aid for them in images and
childish ritual. Thus governments have willingly allowed religion to be
abundantly provided with the latter accessories; and seeking thereby
to relieve their subjects of trouble, they have also sought to deprive
them of the faculty of extending their spiritual powers beyond the
limits that are arbitrarily assigned to them, and by means of which
they can be the more easily treated as mere passive[59] beings.
This pure, elevating, merely negative presentation of morality brings
with it, on the other hand, no danger of _fanaticism_, which is _a
delusion that we can will ourselves to see something beyond all bounds
of sensibility_, _i.e._ to dream in accordance with fundamental
propositions (or to go mad with Reason); and this is so just because
this presentation is merely negative. For the _inscrutableness of the
Idea of Freedom_ quite cuts it off from any positive presentation; but
the moral law is in itself sufficiently and originally determinant
in us, so that it does not permit us to cast a glance at any ground
of determination external to itself. If enthusiasm is comparable to
_madness_, fanaticism is comparable to _monomania_; of which the latter
is least of all compatible with the sublime, because in its detail it
is ridiculous. In enthusiasm, regarded as an affection, the Imagination
is without bridle; in fanaticism, regarded as an inveterate, brooding
passion, it is without rule. The first is a transitory accident which
sometimes befalls the soundest Understanding; the second is a disease
which unsettles it.
_Simplicity_ (purposiveness without art) is as it were the style of
Nature in the sublime, and so also of Morality which is a second
(supersensible) nature; of which we only know the laws without being
able to reach by intuition that supersensible faculty in ourselves
which contains the ground of the legislation.
Now the satisfaction in the Beautiful, like that in the Sublime,
is not alone distinguishable from other aesthetical judgements by
its universal _communicability_, but also because, through this
very property, it acquires an interest in reference to society (in
which this communication is possible). We must, however, remark that
_separation from all society_ is regarded as sublime, if it rests
upon Ideas that overlook all sensible interest. To be sufficient for
oneself, and consequently to have no need of society, without at the
same time being unsociable, _i.e._ without flying from it, is something
bordering on the sublime; as is any dispensing with wants. On the other
hand, to fly from men from _misanthropy_, because we bear ill-will to
them, or from _anthropophoby_ (shyness), because we fear them as foes,
is partly hateful, partly contemptible. There is indeed a misanthropy
(very improperly so-called), the tendency to which frequently appears
with old age in many right-thinking men; which is philanthropic enough
as far as _goodwill_ to men is concerned, but which through long and
sad experience is far removed from _satisfaction_ with men. Evidence of
this is afforded by the propensity to solitude, the fantastic wish for
a secluded country seat, or (in the case of young persons) by the dream
of the happiness of passing one’s life with a little family upon some
island unknown to the rest of the world; a dream of which story-tellers
or writers of Robinsonades know how to make good use. Falsehood,
ingratitude, injustice, the childishness of the purposes regarded by
ourselves as important and great, in the pursuit of which men inflict
upon each other all imaginable evils, are so contradictory to the Idea
of what men might be if they would, and conflict so with our lively
wish to see them better, that, in order that we may not hate them
(since we cannot love them), the renunciation of all social joys seems
but a small sacrifice. This sadness--not the sadness (of which sympathy
is the cause) for the evils which fate brings upon others,--but for
those things which men do to one another (which depends upon an
antipathy in fundamental propositions), is sublime, because it rests
upon Ideas, whilst the former can only count as beautiful.--The
brilliant and thorough _Saussure_,[60] in his account of his Alpine
travels, says of one of the Savoy mountains, called _Bonhomme_, “There
reigns there a certain _insipid sadness_.” He therefore recognised an
_interesting_ sadness, that the sight of a solitude might inspire, to
which men might wish to transport themselves that they might neither
hear nor experience any more of the world; which, however, would not
be quite so inhospitable that it would offer only an extremely painful
retreat.--I make this remark solely with the design of indicating
again that even depression (not dejected sadness) may be counted among
the _sturdy_ affections, if it has its ground in moral Ideas. But if it
is grounded on sympathy and, as such, is amiable, it belongs merely to
the _languid_ affections. [I make this remark] to call attention to the
state of mind which is _sublime_ only in the first case.
* * * * *
We can now compare the above Transcendental Exposition of aesthetical
judgements with the Physiological worked out by _Burke_ and by many
clear-headed men among us, in order to see whither a merely empirical
exposition of the Sublime and Beautiful leads. _Burke_, who deserves
to be regarded as the most important author who adopts this mode of
treatment, infers by this method “that the feeling of the Sublime
rests on the impulse towards self-preservation and on _fear_, _i.e._
on a pain, which not going so far as actually to derange the parts of
the body, produces movements which, since they purify the finer or
grosser vessels of dangerous or troublesome stoppages, are capable
of exciting pleasant sensations; not indeed pleasure, but a kind of
satisfying horror, a certain tranquillity tinged with terror.”[61] The
Beautiful, which he founded on love (which he wishes to keep quite
separate from desire), he reduces to “the relaxing, slackening, and
enervating of the fibres of the body, and a consequent weakening,
languor, and exhaustion, a fainting, dissolving, and melting away for
enjoyment.”[62] And he confirms this explanation not only by cases in
which the Imagination in combination with the Understanding can excite
in us the feeling of the Beautiful or of the Sublime, but by cases in
which it is combined with sensation.--As psychological observations,
these analyses of the phenomena of our mind are exceedingly beautiful,
and afford rich material for the favourite investigations of empirical
anthropology. It is also not to be denied that all representations
in us, whether, objectively viewed, they are merely sensible or are
quite intellectual, may yet subjectively be united to gratification
or grief, however imperceptible either may be; because they all
affect the feeling of life, and none of them, so far as it is a
modification of the subject, can be indifferent. And so, as Epicurus
maintained, all _gratification_ or _grief_ may ultimately be corporeal,
whether it arises from the representations of the Imagination or the
Understanding; because life without a feeling of bodily organs would be
merely a consciousness of existence, without any feeling of well-being
or the reverse, _i.e._ of the furthering or the checking of the vital
powers. For the mind is by itself alone life (the principle of life),
and hindrances or furtherances must be sought outside it and yet in
the man, consequently in union with his body.
If, however, we place the satisfaction in the object altogether in
the fact that it gratifies us by charm or emotion, we must not assume
that any _other_ man agrees with the aesthetical judgement which _we_
pass; for as to these each one rightly consults his own individual
sensibility. But in that case all censorship of taste would disappear,
except indeed the example afforded by the accidental agreement of
others in their judgements were regarded as _commanding_ our assent;
and this principle we should probably resist, and should appeal to the
natural right of subjecting the judgement, which rests on the immediate
feeling of our own well-being, to our own sense and not to that of any
other man.
If then the judgement of taste is not to be valid merely
_egoistically_, but according to its inner nature,--_i.e._ on account
of itself and not on account of the examples that others give of their
taste,--to be necessarily valid _pluralistically_, if we regard it
as a judgement which may exact the adhesion of every one; then there
must lie at its basis some _a priori_ principle (whether objective or
subjective) to which we can never attain by seeking out the empirical
laws of mental changes. For these only enable us to know how we judge,
but do not prescribe to us how we ought to judge. They do not supply an
_unconditioned_ command,[63] such as judgements of taste presuppose,
inasmuch as they require that the satisfaction be _immediately_
connected with the representation. Thus the empirical exposition of
aesthetical judgements may be a beginning of a collection of materials
for a higher investigation; but a transcendental discussion of this
faculty is also possible, and is an essential part of the Critique of
Taste. For if it had not _a priori_ principles, it could not possibly
pass sentence on the judgements of others, and it could not approve or
blame them with any appearance of right.
The remaining part of the Analytic of the Aesthetical Judgement
contains first the
DEDUCTION OF [PURE[64]] AESTHETICAL JUDGEMENTS
§ 30. _The Deduction of aesthetical judgements on the objects of nature
must not be directed to what we call Sublime in nature, but only to the
Beautiful._
The claim of an aesthetical judgement to universal validity for every
subject requires, as a judgement resting on some _a priori_ principle,
a Deduction (or legitimatising of its pretensions) in addition to its
Exposition; if it is concerned with satisfaction or dissatisfaction
in the _form of the Object_. Of this kind are judgements of taste
about the Beautiful in Nature. For in that case the purposiveness
has its ground in the Object and in its figure, although it does not
indicate the reference of this to other objects according to concepts
(for a cognitive judgement), but merely has to do in general with the
apprehension of this form, so far as it shows itself conformable in the
mind to the _faculty_ of concepts and to that of their presentation
(which is identical with that of apprehension). We can thus, in respect
of the Beautiful in nature, suggest many questions touching the cause
of this purposiveness of their forms, _e.g._ to explain why nature has
scattered abroad beauty with such profusion, even in the depth of the
ocean, where the human eye (for which alone that purposiveness exists)
but seldom penetrates.
But the Sublime in nature--if we are passing upon it a pure aesthetical
judgement, not mixed up with any concepts of perfection or objective
purposiveness, in which case it would be a teleological judgement--may
be regarded as quite formless or devoid of figure, and yet as the
object of a pure satisfaction; and it may display a subjective
purposiveness in the given representation. And we ask if, for an
aesthetical judgement of this kind,--over and above the Exposition
of what is thought in it,--a Deduction also of its claim to any
(subjective) _a priori_ principle may be demanded?
To which we may answer that the Sublime in nature is improperly so
called, and that properly speaking the word should only be applied
to a state of mind, or rather to its foundation in human nature. The
apprehension of an otherwise formless and unpurposive object gives
merely the occasion, through which we become conscious of such a state;
the object is thus _employed_ as subjectively purposive, but is not
judged as such _in itself_ and on account of its form (it is, as it
were, a _species finalis accepta, non data_). Hence our Exposition of
judgements concerning the Sublime in nature was at the same time their
Deduction. For when we analysed the reflection of the Judgement in such
acts, we found in them a purposive relation of the cognitive faculties,
which must be ascribed ultimately to the faculty of purposes (the
will), and hence is itself purposive _a priori_. This then immediately
involves the Deduction, _i.e._ the justification of the claim of such a
judgement to universal and necessary validity.
We shall therefore only have to seek for the deduction of judgements
of Taste, _i.e._ of judgements about the Beauty of natural things;
we shall thus treat satisfactorily the problem with which the whole
faculty of aesthetical Judgement is concerned.
§ 31. _Of the method of deduction of judgements of Taste_
A Deduction, _i.e._ the guarantee of the legitimacy of a class
of judgements, is only obligatory if the judgement lays claim to
necessity. This it does, if it demands even subjective universality or
the agreement of every one, although it is not a judgement of cognition
but only one of pleasure or pain in a given object; _i.e._ it assumes a
subjective purposiveness thoroughly valid for every one, which must not
be based on any concept of the thing, because the judgement is one of
taste.
We have before us in the latter case no cognitive judgement--neither a
theoretical one based on the concept of a _Nature_ in general formed
by the Understanding, nor a (pure) practical one based on the Idea of
_Freedom_, as given _a priori_ by Reason. Therefore we have to justify
_a priori_ the validity neither of a judgement which represents what
a thing is, nor of one which prescribes that I ought to do something
in order to produce it. We have merely to prove for the Judgement
generally the _universal validity_ of a singular judgement that
expresses the subjective purposiveness of an empirical representation
of the form of an object; in order to explain how it is possible that
a thing can please in the mere act of judging it (without sensation or
concept), and how the satisfaction of one man can be proclaimed as a
rule for every other; just as the act of judging of an object for the
sake of a _cognition_ in general has universal rules.
If now this universal validity is not to be based on any collecting of
the suffrages of others, or on any questioning of them as to the kind
of sensations they have, but is to rest, as it were, on an autonomy of
the judging subject in respect of the feeling of pleasure (in the given
representation), _i.e._ on his own taste, and yet is not to be derived
from concepts; then a judgement like this--such as the judgement of
taste is, in fact--has a twofold logical peculiarity. _First_, there is
its _a priori_ universal validity, which is not a logical universality
in accordance with concepts, but the universality of a singular
judgement. _Secondly_, it has a necessity (which must always rest on
_a priori_ grounds), which however does not depend on any _a priori_
grounds of proof, through the representation of which the assent that
every one concedes to the judgement of taste could be exacted.
The solution of these logical peculiarities, wherein a judgement
of taste is different from all cognitive judgements--if we at the
outset abstract from all content, viz. from the feeling of pleasure,
and merely compare the aesthetical form with the form of objective
judgements as logic prescribes it--is sufficient by itself for the
deduction of this singular faculty. We shall then represent and
elucidate by examples these characteristic properties of taste.
§ 32. _First peculiarity of the judgement of Taste_
The judgement of taste determines its object in respect of satisfaction
(in its beauty) with an accompanying claim for the assent of _every
one_, just as if it were objective.
To say that “this flower is beautiful” is the same as to assert its
proper claim to satisfy every one. By the pleasantness of its smell
it has no such claim. A smell which one man enjoys gives another a
headache. Now what are we to presume from this except that beauty is
to be regarded as a property of the flower itself, which does not
accommodate itself to any diversity of persons or of their sensitive
organs, but to which these must accommodate themselves if they are to
pass any judgement upon it? And yet this is not so. For a judgement
of taste consists in calling a thing beautiful just because of that
characteristic in respect of which it accommodates itself to our mode
of apprehension.
Moreover, it is required of every judgement which is to prove the
taste of the subject, that the subject shall judge by himself, without
needing to grope about empirically among the judgements of others, and
acquaint himself previously as to their satisfaction or dissatisfaction
with the same object; thus his judgement should be pronounced _a
priori_, and not be a mere imitation because the thing actually gives
universal pleasure. One would think, however, that an _a priori_
judgement must contain a concept of the Object, for the cognition of
which it contains the principle; but the judgement of taste is not
based upon concepts at all, and is in general not a cognitive but an
aesthetical judgement.
Thus a young poet does not permit himself to be dissuaded from his
conviction that his poem is beautiful, by the judgement of the public
or of his friends; and if he gives ear to them he does so, not because
he now judges differently, but because, although (in regard to him)
the whole public has false taste, in his desire for applause he finds
reason for accommodating himself to the common error (even against his
judgement). It is only at a later time, when his Judgement has been
sharpened by exercise, that he voluntarily departs from his former
judgements; just as he proceeds with those of his judgements which rest
upon Reason. Taste [merely][65] claims autonomy. To make the judgements
of others the determining grounds of his own would be heteronomy.
That we, and rightly, recommend the works of the ancients as models
and call their authors classical, thus forming among writers a kind
of noble class who give laws to the people by their example, seems
to indicate _a posteriori_ sources of taste, and to contradict the
autonomy of taste in every subject. But we might just as well say
that the old mathematicians,--who are regarded up to the present day
as supplying models not easily to be dispensed with for the supreme
profundity and elegance of their synthetical methods,--prove that our
Reason is only imitative, and that we have not the faculty of producing
from it in combination with intuition rigid proofs by means of the
construction of concepts.[66] There is no use of our powers, however
free, no use of Reason itself (which must create all its judgements
_a priori_ from common sources) which would not give rise to faulty
attempts, if every subject had always to begin anew from the rude basis
of his natural state, and if others had not preceded him with their
attempts. Not that these make mere imitators of those who come after
them, but rather by their procedure they put others on the track of
seeking in themselves principles and so of pursuing their own course,
often a better one. Even in religion--where certainly every one has
to derive the rule of his conduct from himself, because he remains
responsible for it and cannot shift the blame of his transgressions
upon others, whether his teachers or his predecessors--there is never
as much accomplished by means of universal precepts, either obtained
from priests or philosophers or got from oneself, as by means of
an example of virtue or holiness which, exhibited in history, does
not dispense with the autonomy of virtue based on the proper and
original Idea of morality (_a priori_), or change it into a mechanical
imitation. _Following_, involving something precedent, not “imitation,”
is the right expression for all influence that the products of an
exemplary author may have upon others. And this only means that we
draw from the same sources as our predecessor did, and learn from him
only the way to avail ourselves of them. But of all faculties and
talents Taste, because its judgement is not determinable by concepts
and precepts, is just that one which most needs examples of what has
in the progress of culture received the longest approval; that it may
not become again uncivilised and return to the crudeness of its first
essays.
§ 33. _Second peculiarity of the judgement of Taste_
The judgement of taste is not determinable by grounds of proof, just as
if it were merely _subjective_.