One Act or Two? Hannah Ginsborg on Aesthetic Judgement

Abstract

Hannah Ginsborg rejects my 'two-acts' interpretation of Kant's conception of aesthetic judgement as untrue to Kant's text and as philosophically problematic, especially because it entails that every object must be experienced as beautiful. I reject her criticisms, and argue that it is her own 'one-act' interpretation that is liable to these criticisms. But I also suggest that her emphasis on Kant's 'transcendental explanation' of pleasure as a self-maintaining mental state suggests an alternative to the common view that pleasure is a distinctive feeling, even if Ginsborg herself does not draw that conclusion.