Schematizing Without a Concept: Kant on the Harmony of Imagination and Understanding

Abstract

Abstract: Kant's theory of the harmony of imagination and understanding either leads to an inconsequent claim that "everything is beautiful" or fails to ensure the universal validity of judgements of taste. This paper proposes to approach the dilemma by way of Kant's notion of "idea—schema—the-expression-of-the-idea" developed in "Appendix to the Transcendental Dialectic," interpreting the text from a noncognitive-idealist approach. This approach starts with Kant's "schematizing without a concept," claiming that this "schematizing without a concept" is an indeterminate schematization, and thus initiates a noncognitive-idealist interpretation of the harmony of imagination and understanding. This approach, on the one hand, solves the problem that "everything is beautiful"; on the other hand, it enables a reconstruction of the universal validity of judgements of taste from a noncognitive-idealist perspective, as manifested in §57 of Critique of Judgment.

Key words: imagination, understanding, harmony, schematizing without a concept

CLC Number:

Li Wei . Schematizing Without a Concept: Kant on the Harmony of Imagination and Understanding[J]. Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art.

References

Allison, Henry. Kant’s Theory of Taste: A Reading of the Critique of Aesthetic

Judgment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Guyer, Paul. Kant and the Claims of Taste. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press，

1997.

Hughes, Fiona. Kant’s Critique of Judgment. London: Continuum, 2010.

康德：《判断力批判》，邓晓芒译、杨祖陶校。北京：人民出版社，2002年。

[Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Judgment. Trans. Deng Xiaomang. Ed. Yang Zutao.

Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2002.]

——：《纯粹理性批判》，邓晓芒译、杨祖陶校。北京：人民出版社，2004年。

[---. Critique of Pure Reason. Trans. Deng Xiaomang. Ed. Yang Zutao. Beijing:

People’s Publishing House, 2004.]

——：“《判断力批判》第一导言”，《冥河的摆渡者》，邓晓芒译。武汉：武汉大

学出版社，2007年。

[---. “First Introduction to Critique of Judgment” in The Ferryman of Styx. Trans.

Deng Xiaomang. Wuhan: Wuhan University Press, 2007.]

李泽厚：《批判哲学的批判：康德述评》。北京：生活·读书·新知三联书店，2007

年。

[Li, Zehou. A New Approach to Kant: A Confucian-Marxist’s Viewpoint. Beijing: SDX

Joint Publishing Company, 2007.]

刘旭光：“论‘审美理念’在康德美学中的作用——重构康德美学的一种可能”，《学

术月刊》8（2017）：141-51。

[Liu, Xuguang. “On the Function of ‘Aesthetic Idea’: Revisiting Kantian Aesthetics.”

Academic Monthly 8（2017）：141-51.]

叶秀山：《启蒙与自由——叶秀山论康德》。南京：江苏人民出版社，2013年。

[Ye, Xiushan. Enlightenment and Freedom: Ye Xiushan on Kant. Nanjing: Jiangsu

People’s Publishing House, 2013.]

[1]	Song Xuhong. Virtual Reality and Metaversal Literature [J]. Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art, 2023, 43(1): 1-11.
[2]	Yin Lin. The Media Transition of Aesthetic Imagination and the Restoration of Literary Independence: On the Renaming of Regional Journals of “Literature and Art” [J]. Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art, 2022, 42(1): 52-69.
[3]	Wu Fei. Self-Understanding before the Text: Paul Ricoeur’s Conceptualization of the Textual Meaning [J]. Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art, 2021, 41(5): 176-183.
[4]	Li Yongdong. Urban Imagination and the Idea of the Nation-State in Modern Chinese Literature [J]. Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art, 2021, 41(2): 54-67.
[5]	Lin Weixuan. “Poetic Wisdom” or “Poetic Knowledge”: On the Interlingual Transformation of “Della Sapienza Poetica” [J]. Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art, 2021, 41(2): 78-89.
[6]	Huang Hongqiu. A Textual Critique on Mencius' Perception of "Tracing back Intent through Understanding" [J]. Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art, 2020, 40(2): 80-90.
[7]	Li Guohui. The Politics of Form: The Correlation between Formal Reconstructions in Free Verse and Anarchism [J]. Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art, 2020, 40(2): 121-129.
[8]	Zhu Zhirong. "Imagery Beyond Images" in the Creative Process of Idea-imagery [J]. Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art, 2020, 40(1): 1-7.
[9]	Li Xiaolin. On Richard Rorty's Concept of Imagination [J]. Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art, 2018, 38(5): 176-181.
[10]	Pan Jingru . The Discourse System of the Qing Loyalists: a Case Study of "Zhenyuan Courtiers" [J]. Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art, 2018, 38(2): 102-110.
[11]	Stefan Majetschak . Ranges of Understanding: On the Vast Scope of Art Interpretation. A Wittgensteinian Perspective [J]. Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art, 2018, 38(1): 39-48.
[12]	Li Hecheng. Cultural Code: The Public Image of Imagination [J]. Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art, 2017, 37(4): 151-160.
[13]	Zhu Jun, Sun Xun. New Changes of Confucianism during the Late Qing Dynasty and the New Novel's Imagination of the Nation [J]. Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art, 2017, 37(2): 19-28.
[14]	Su Hongbin. On the Aesthetic Significance of Kant's Concept of Schema [J]. Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art, 2016, 36(1): 177-182.
[15]	Liu Xin. Ideology in Narrative and the Surpass of It: A Discussion Based on Ricoeur's Lectures on Ideology and Utopia [J]. Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art, 2015, 35(6): 192-200.