on the subjective value of Wohlgefallen. It is important to acknowledge
that when Kant discusses beauty he does so in reference to nature, the
inanimate, since beauty is an ideal of perfection. Man's beauty, called
ideal beauty, is on the other hand dependent consisting and existing as
an expression of morality. Free beauty, nature, requires no restriction on
the imaginative faculties. "Eine Naturschonheit ist ein schones Ding; die
Kunstschonheit ist eine schone Vorstellung von einem Dinge" (Kant).
Kant emphasizes the difference between the actual and the
representation of an object. He emphasizes the inequality between nature
and art, the artificiality of the beautiful representation of an object. This
idea seems particularly pertinent in regards to Ka.th.chen as she is
continually referred to as an object, an idea we will return to shortly.
However, the very concept of beauty existing as an ideal implies its
nonexistence in that Kant further claims that perceiving beauty is a
psychological phenomenon in that the imagination is engaged. He
divorces the idea of a Geschmacksurteil, a personal judgment of taste,
from the taint of bias by referencing its affect on the subject, the pleasure
or displeasure it creates. Taste, according to Kant, is the ability to
estimate an object—by either Lust or Unlust—that is independent of an
interest.29 He maintains that the concept of Wohlgefallen is not based on
the inclination of the subject but feels free to like the object without
" "Geschmack ist das Beurteilungsvermogen eines Gegenstandes oder einer Vorstellungsart durch ein
Wohlgefallen oder MiBfallen ohne alles Interesse" (Kant 531).
133