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stankovic, sasa thesis.pdf - Atrium - University of Guelph

stankovic, sasa thesis.pdf - Atrium - University of Guelph

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Aesthetic common sense<br />

The faculties <strong>of</strong> knowledge and desire legislate in the interest <strong>of</strong> reason. “The understanding<br />

legislates for a rational speculative purpose, and reason legislates for its own practical purpose”<br />

(DI 68-9). That the faculties <strong>of</strong> knowledge and desire legislate in the interest <strong>of</strong> reason means<br />

that they legislate over a domain <strong>of</strong> objects that are subject to them: “all legislation implies<br />

objects on which it is exercised and which are subject to it” (KCP 47). Phenomena are objects<br />

that are subject to the faculty <strong>of</strong> knowledge, and things in themselves are objects that are subject<br />

to the faculty <strong>of</strong> desire, for example the moral laws: “there are only two sorts <strong>of</strong> objects,<br />

phenomena and things-in-themselves: the first are governed by the legislation <strong>of</strong> the<br />

understanding for a speculative purpose; and second, by the legislation <strong>of</strong> reason for a practical<br />

purpose” (DI 58-9). That the faculty <strong>of</strong> knowledge reaches its higher form means that it does not<br />

mirror the laws <strong>of</strong> objects <strong>of</strong> knowledge but that it imposes its own laws on the these objects.<br />

That the faculty <strong>of</strong> desire reaches its higher form means that it does not mirror the objects <strong>of</strong><br />

desire but rather that it imposes its own laws on these objects (freedom). This is the fundamental<br />

difference between these two faculties and the faculty <strong>of</strong> feeling pleasure and pain. “On the one<br />

hand, contrary to what happens in the case <strong>of</strong> the other faculties, the higher form here does not<br />

define any interest <strong>of</strong> reason: aesthetic pleasure is independent both <strong>of</strong> the speculative interest<br />

and <strong>of</strong> the practical interest and, indeed, is itself defined as completely disinterested” (KCP 47).<br />

That the faculty <strong>of</strong> feeling is disinterested means that it does not have a domain <strong>of</strong> objects. In<br />

other words, the faculty <strong>of</strong> feeling does not legislate over objects that are subject to it. “The<br />

faculty <strong>of</strong> feeling does not legislate over objects; it is therefore not in itself a faculty (in the<br />

second sense <strong>of</strong> the word) which is legislative” (KCP 49). However, that the faculty <strong>of</strong> feeling is<br />

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