Twelfth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

In section 40 of the Critique of Judgment, Kant elaborates on his account of the “subjective universality’ of judgments of taste by introducing three “maxims of common human understanding” that are meant to “serve to elucidate the fundamental propositions” of a judgment of taste (the judgment that something is beautiful). In part one of the paper, I reflect on the practice of musical improvisation, especially in a group setting, in light of Kant’s maxims. Kant’s insight here, or so I will argue, is that the “indeterminate concept” of beauty draws us into a kind of virtual community that is, as it were, in search of an (unrealizable) agreement with respect to the beautiful. Membership in this community requires of us that we give full regard to the other and his or her sense of beauty and/or aesthetic rightness. As Hannah Arendt has put it, the indeterminacy of beauty, combined with the desire for agreement or communion that a judgment of taste embodies, “trains the imagination to go visiting.” In part 2, using Roger Scruton’s reflections on beauty and the sacred as I guide, I explore possible connections between the beauty sought in improvisational practices and the experience of the sacred.