Poetry and nature in Kant’s aesthetics: on why poetry is the highest of all the arts
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Date
2018Author
Fumagalli, Laura
Metadata
Abstract
This dissertation will explore some of the reasons why poetry is ranked as
the highest of all the arts in Kant’s aesthetics and what is the relation
between nature and poetry. The central thesis is that poetry is the most
beautiful art because it is made of language. It will be shown that poetry
possesses free beauty and that pure judgments of taste in poetry are possible.
Besides, poetry is the only art that originates entirely from the genius,
because it shares the same language of the understanding, which, alongside
imagination, constitutes the genius. Finally, poetry is the only art in which
aesthetic ideas are in full power and can be fully expressed. This happens
because language is pushed to its limits and is freed from conceptual
constraints.