Kant and the Ends of Aesthetics

The importance and significance of Kant's aesthetics have been widely debated. This work presents an original interpretation of Kant's account which is based on rethinking the nature of Critical Philosophy. Gary Banham presents the argument that the Critique of Judgment needs to be read as a whole. Aesthetics is investigated in relation to all three critiques with the recovery of a larger sense of the 'aesthetic' resulting. This broader notion of aesthetics is connected to the recovery of the critique of teleology in an original presentation of Kant's critical enterprise as constituted by the attempt to think the meaning of ends. It will force a new and more comprehensive engagement with Kant's legacy, and Banham's re-description of the scope of critique will influence discussion in the areas of political theory, literary criticism and art theory.