Michelle Ward-- Aesthetic Judgement

Immanuel Kant refers to Art as communicable pleasure. Kant refers to the variety of labels in which we can define the aesthetic appeals of art as Agreeable, beautiful, sublime and good. I think that when contrasting Kant’s definition of the sublime and the beautiful with Edmund Burke’s definition of the sublime and the beautiful, Burke iterates it perfectly. The strengths that support Kant’s distinctions between the different aesthetic appeals are found within his attempt to include a variety of levels of appeals. I think that although aesthetic appeal is subjective, we tend to use words of evaluating aesthetic appeal too widely. Are there particular adjectives that you reserve for certain levels of appeals? I believe that if something is beautiful it should really evoke a different reaction from you, it should not just be an adjective you use freely all over the place. There are particular adjectives that should be reserved for superb displays of aesthetic appeals. While other adjectives can we used interchangeably, I think that if we all have a shared understanding as to the framework in which we use to evaluate aesthetic appeal, it would be more difficult to simply use an adjective without meaning its purpose.