The Concept of "Interest": Kant & Adorno
Abstract
In the first moment of the analytic of the beautiful, in the first section of his book, Kant analyses judgment of taste concerning its quality. He writes: in order to call something beautiful, a human being must judge it as the object of impartial satisfaction or dissatisfaction. This "disinterestedness" or "impartiality" of the judgment of taste has attracted many scholars of Kant's aesthetics, on the one hand because of its importance for Kant's analysis and, on the other hand, because of its ambiguous character. One of the prominent figures who was attracted by this part of Kant's analysis is Theodor Adorno. In this paper, I have tried to get a closer look at the first section of Kant's third Critique, put forward the discussions which it gave rise to and finally answer some of the critiques. Also, I will investigate in more details Adorno's ideas on the "disinterestedness" of judgment of taste and the consequences of this approach to the concept of beauty and arts; I will argue that how Adorno- based on his philosophy in relation to art and the concept of beauty, and with the use of an dialectical way of thinking- gives us a new point of view to look at the subject and theorizes that. In the end, I will try to answer some of the critiques with regard to other sections of the third Critique in order to have a better understanding of Kant's position.