Kant, Kante and the Moral Character of Art

Abstract

Kant scholars mostly agree that there is an internal link between beauty and morality, and some claim that appreciation of beauty is a precondition for moral development. This paper builds on prof. Kante’s views as developed in his talk, “Nature, Art and Autonomy: Kant’s and Guyer’s Perspective”. First, I offer an outline of Kant’s account of the preeminence of the beauty of nature over the beauty of art, followed by Kant’s point of view on fine arts in general and on artistic genius. Throughout the paper, I will use Kante’s refutations of Guyer’s views, presented in Kante’s talk, and expand such arguments into a more substantial defence of the moral relevance of artistic beauty. I will try to establish such a defence of moral relevance of artistic beauty regardless of Kant’s explicit endorsement of preeminence of the beauty of nature. In the final part of the article, I also focus on the freedom and autonomy in art-engagements, i.e., the place and purpose of the observer in art.