← Glossary

The beautiful

According to the “Critique of Judgment”, the beautiful is what pleases universally, without interest and without a concept.

Kant determines the beautiful in four moments: it pleases without interest (we do not want to possess or consume the object), it pleases universally without a concept (not by proof, yet claiming everyone's assent), it displays purposiveness without a purpose, and it pleases necessarily.

Beauty is thus not a property of things themselves but grounded in the beholder: in the free play of imagination and understanding that an object sets in motion. That is exactly why the judgment of taste can be subjective — and yet more than mere private opinion.

Source: Wikipedia: The beautiful