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Kant’s Deduction of the Sublime

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 August 2018

Thomas Moore
Thomas Moore*
Affiliation:
Brown University
*
Email: thomas_e_moore@brown.edu
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Abstract

In the third Critique, Kant collapses his deduction of the universal validity of judgements of sublimity into his exposition of such judgements, a decision called into question by commentators. I defend Kant on this score, explaining how the exposition of judgements of sublimity serves as their deduction. Kant’s key move is his claim that natural objects are not, strictly speaking, sublime. I argue that ideas of reason, on Kant’s view, are the only truly sublime objects and show how this allows him to establish that the imaginations of all observers operate in the same way in experiences of sublimity.

Keywords

Kantian sublimeideas of reasondeductionKant’s aesthetics

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Type
Articles
Information
Kantian Review , Volume 23 , Issue 3 , September 2018 , pp. 349 - 372
Copyright
© Kantian Review 2018 

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