Kant's Aesthetics Study Of Nature And The Concept Of Freedom

In the dissertation the system of Kant's aesthetics is re-formed which is based on two important concepts, that is, "nature" and "freedom". based on the former, Kant's transcendental aesthetics is founded so that the transcendental essence of Kantian aesthetics is founded; and based on the latter Kant's ontological aesthetics is founded so that metaphysics of Kantian aesthetics is probed and the long covered subject of Kantian aesthetics, that is, "the harmony theory of nature and the freedom", is unearthed, so there will be new interpretations for Kantian aesthetics.In chapter one, based on the concepts of nature and freedom in Kantian philosophy, the concepts of nature and freedom are deeply analyzed. It is just due to the conflict between nature and freedom in Kantian philosophy that leads to the formation of Kantian aesthetics system. So exploring the concepts of nature and freedom clearly is the theoretical prerequisite for understanding the concepts of nature and freedom in Kantian aesthetics.In chapter two, Kant's transcendental aesthetics is re-constructed based on the concept of nature in Kant's aesthetics, Kant's aesthetics is an important part of Kantian transcendental philosophy, but the transcendental essence of Kant's aesthetics has not been clearly defined by scholars. So in this chapter base on the second part of book Critique of Judgment, the commonly accepted viewpoint in the study of Kantian aesthetics, that is, Critique of teleological judgment is Critique of aesthetic judgment is improved from the discovery of purposiveness of nature to transcendental transition of Kantian aesthetics, it is just due to the discovery of purposiveness of nature that thetranscendental principle of aesthetic judgment——formal purposiveness of nature, isfounded, which makes Critique of Judgment possible and enables aesthetics to be universally necessary, so the connection between transcendental principle and aesthetics issue becomes an important part in the study of Kantian aesthetics. Kant deeply proved a key point in natural beauty, that is ,how is transcendental aesthetics possible, and the understanding of natural beauty becomes a way to interpret the essence of Kant's transcendental aesthetics. So the expounding of three subjects, that is from "purposiveness of nature" to "formal purposiveness of nature", then to "natural beauty", forms an implied inherent logical which is the methodology of Kantian transcendental aesthetics.In chapter three Kantian ontological aesthetics is re-constructed based on the concept of freedom in Kantian aesthetics. The concept of freedom has been expounded in academic circles, yet so far it has been concentrated mainly on the expounding of "aesthetic disinterestness". in fact ,the concept of freedom has different levels and "aesthetic disinterestness" is only the levels of its perceptual experience. While on the transcendental and ontological levels implies the ontological base of Kantian aesthetics. In this dissertation, through the analysis of the three levels in Kantian aesthetics, a new interpreting way for the concept of freedom is formed, that is ,aesthetic freedom appears as a kind of sense of freedom of disinterestness on experiential levels, as aesthetic common sense on transcendental level, and as probe into practical rationality on transcendental level, while the ultimate goal of Kantian aesthetic freedom is to construct ontological aesthetics of practical rationality based on "freedom".In the chapter four, the harmony between nature and freedom in aesthetics is expounded based on Kantian philosophy. The gap between nature and freedom is linked up through reflective judgment, while it can not be possible except the comprehensive understanding of Kantian transcendental anthropology. What is the real connotation of the transition from nature to freedom which Kant achieved through aesthetics? in this chapter .the real connotation is interpreted with the theory of harmony between nature and freedom ,so that a comprehensive understanding of Kantian aesthetics is formed, but the harmony between nature and freedom which Kant achieved by reflective judgment can be only the one from subjective consciousness, and the real harmony can only come from the practical point of Marxism.In chapter five, the significance of the harmony theory to the construction of Chinese contemporary aesthetic theories is expounded based on Chinese contemporary aesthetic, in this chapter it is tries to study the significance of Kantian aesthetics to Chinese contemporary aesthetic studies from the angle of communication which is not based on comparing and expounding of the whole Kantian aesthetics ideas and the whole Chinese contemporary aesthetic ideas :but based on the connective study between the harmony theory and the several important issues of Chinese contemporary aesthetic studies, so that it will be clear how much significances Kantian aesthetics has to Chinese contemporary aesthetic studies, in the above, it has been expounded in the harmony theory that the essence of aesthetics is the significance of from experiencing (analogizing, symbolizing)in the nature of experiential phenomenon to transcendental freedom(morality, pratical rationality),so the aim of aesthetics is to link up experiential world and transcendental world .and to finish constructing self-personality, so aesthetics is the humanities featured with both metaphysics and phenomenon, then the theme of aesthetics is the harmony between nature and freedom. Through expounding the theme of Kantian aesthetics .the following can be analyzed, the methodological misleadings of Chinese contemporary aesthetic studies, the development of the issue "nature" and "freedom" in Chinese contemporary aesthetics, the argument between practical aesthetics and transcending aesthetics, the issue of aestheticalization of daily life ,so the answers for the above can be get from Kantian aesthetics.It is just due to the neglect and misunderstanding of the two concepts "nature" and "freedom" in Kantian aesthetics by the academic circle that lead to being unable to study Kantian esthetics deeply, especially mang issues implied in Kantian esthetics have not been discovered, which are to be given new probings in this dissertation.