Freedom and Artistic Creativity in Kant

Abstract

<p>The notion of artistic creativity has become so commonplace in our thought that the only question remaining, it seems, is whether anyone (or everyone) other than the artist is capable of being creative. Even noting that this notion, used in the sense that we tend so readily to accept, is no more than two hundred years old, is unlikely to prevent the raising of at least one eyebrow at the suggestion that the idea is not as unproblematic as it might at first appear. The purpose of this thesis is to revitalize the belief in human creativity by returning to its primary philosophical source: Immanuel Kant.</p> <p>By doing this, I hope to revive at least the possibility of serious philosophical debate on an issue that is now either accepted as a closed case (as it typically is by aestheticians), or dismissed as an insufficiently philosophical topic (as is often done by non-aestheticians). In fact, the belief of human creativity as we now know it is ultimately the result of an enormous metaphysical and epistemological effort by Kant to preserve the possibility of moral freedom. Losing this historical context has caused 'creativity' to lose its philosophical bite. Regaining this context -- the essence of the current project -- should force us to think seriously again about a problem that opens out, not merely on major issues in aesthetics, but on the major philosophical tide of the past two hundred years.</p>