It is safe to say that a common, popular conception of art is that which depicts the beautiful. Nonetheless, even this seemingly benign assumption raises some interesting questions. Is beauty a subjective or an objective notion? Does it reside in the observer of the object or in the object itself? Is beauty relative, or contingent upon factors outside of the object of judgment? How does the beauty of an object affect the social relations regarding that object? Why is beauty important in regards to art? In his Critique of Judgment, Immanuel Kant thoroughly describes his four reflective judgments, beauty being one of them. It is important because of his systematic description of the term. Kant is very specific in his differentiation of the judgment of beauty versus the potentially contrasting judgment of the good, viz. an ethical judgment. It is …
