| In the Critique of Judgment, one can argue that Kant reverses the traditional hierarchy of politics and aesthetics, having those standards that are derived aesthetically and non-representationally be determinate of the polis instead of having the aesthetic standards be determined by a political concept of normativity. Aesthetics here is no longer subservient to politics, but, instead, has the power to impact it. This is possible because in Kant's aesthetics, the imagination is freed from its constraints in the theoretical and moral realms. The implication for politics is that in the face of indeterminacies we can create our own futures based on non-repressive communication. The consequence for morality is that we learn to make moral judgments based on the particularity of the situation rather than following abstract moral codes.;Kant frees aesthetics from morality and politics, that is, he overcomes the Platonic mandate that art serve politics. This means that aesthetics can be seen to provide political foundations insofar as aesthetic judgment creates its own rule. The result is an aesthetic rationality allowing for a "politics of judgment" which would not seek to destroy the plurality of opinions, but, instead, would acknowledge that there is no logical pre-given political content.;When Kant liberates aesthetics from its service to politics he allows it to be judged on internal rather than external standards, subjective rather than objective ones. Aesthetics then enters a realm free from predetermined conceptualizations, depending neither on nature nor freedom, but, bridging or mediating between them, being further suspended between reason and understanding--mediating between knowledge and desire via imagination.;This means that Kant's aesthetics opens a realm of freedom and plurality. For, when we make an aesthetic judgment of the beautiful, we have complete freedom, yet, we are also completely engaged in a human community. This is because the concern with beauty is a strictly human concern and relates us to a human world. |
