Skip to main content
University of California Press

About the Book

When originally published in 1960, this was the first complete English translation since 1799 of Kant's early work on aesthetics. More literary than philosophical, Observations shows Kant as a man of feeling rather than the dry thinker he often seemed to readers of the three Critiques.

About the Author

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) published his Critique of Pure Reason in 1781, the Critique of Practical Reason in 1788, and the Critique of Judgment in 1790. John T. Goldthwait was Professor of Philosophy at the State University of New York, Plattsburgh, and the author of Values: What They Are and How We Know Them (1996)

Table of Contents

TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION
NOTE ON THE TRANSLATION

OBSERVATIONS ON THE FEELING OF THE BEAUTIFUL AND SUBLIME

SECTION ONE:
Of the Distinct Objects of the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime

SECTION Two:
Of the Attributes of the Beautiful and Sublime in Man in General

SECTION THREE :
Of the Distinction of the Beautiful and Sublime in the Interrelations of the Two Sexes

SECTION FOUR:
Of National Characteristics, so far as They Depend upon the Distinct Feeling of the
Beautiful and Sublime

TRANSLATOR'S NOTES