Reviews for Kant on Beauty and Biology: An Interpretation of the 'Critique of Judgment'

The average rating for Kant on Beauty and Biology: An Interpretation of the 'Critique of Judgment' based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-01-05 00:00:00 Jacqueline Campbell This is an extremely insightful book that attempts, with some degree of success, to fuse the methodological concerns, approaches, and constraints of Gadamer's phenomenological hermeneutics with Foucault's critical genealogy. The general argument is that through engaging with open dialogue with the other, we can make steps toward a kind of self-distanciation which allows to critically engage with our own symbolic complexes and power structures through the gaze of the other. This creates a kind of hermeneutical reflexivity which both embraces our situatedness while opening up avenues for recognizing implicit assumptions and preunderstanding that constitute that situatedness. Kogler's critiques of Gadamer's hermeneutics are astute and well-put. After reading this, I cannot consider myself a Gadamerian to the extent that I could after initially reading Truth and Method, but this is a good thing because it helps to advance the dialogue. However, I do not find myself entirely convinced by Kogler's arguments. I am still concerned that the idea of an attempt at self-distanciation and reaching self-understanding by putting oneself in the conceptual-praxiological shoes of the other still smacks of Schleiermacher a little too much. What is the extent that we can immerse ourselves in the perspective of the other? How does that process occur through dialogue?

Review # 2 was written on 2012-01-26 00:00:00 Sean Tiernet "It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, is of a different opinion, it is only because they only know their own side of the question." - John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism I remember reading bits of Mill's Utilitarianism during a course of political philosophy and public policy when I was in college (my major almost 20 years ago was public policy). I have always been attracted to the basics of Mill's Utilitarianism and William's Pragmatism. Thus, may I disagree with Ferris Bueller. I do believe in isms. Anyway, I hadn't touched Mill in quite awhile (6 years) and figured it was probably time to dust off some of those foundational Western political philosophers. Who knows, we all may be rebuilding a Republic soon.