Objectivity and Subjectivity of Beauty in Kant’s and Mulla Sadara’s Philosophy

Sayyid Mahdi Imam Jom’a / Associate Professor in Department of Theology and Metaphysics Isfahan University m.amami lta.ui.ac.ir

@ Sayyid Muhammad Mohsen Mir-Morshedi / PhD Student of Philosophy IKI

Received: 2020/03/02 - Accepted: 2020/09/15                                               mohsengmirus@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

The issues of subjectivity and objectivity in philosophy have affected various spheres in human’s life. Among them is the sphere of ‘philosophy of art’ and especially the recognition of beauty. Mulla Sadra and Kant are two Muslim and Western philosophers who have explored this sphere and offered influential theories. By comparing the views of the two philosophers, one can concluded that both of them somehow believe in the mind’s intervention in perception of beauty. Kant, however, does not accept the objective beauty behind the subjective beauty, and traces back all beauties to the mind and the feeling perceived thereby. In contrast, Mulla Sadra considers the mind to be involved in perception of beauty and maintains that beauty is perceived in a level higher than the material world; but he regards the truth of beauty as personified in the external world in view of the fact that it is among the properties of existence and aligned with it. Mulla Sadra subsumes beauty in the classification of philosophical intelligibles and Kant considers it merely subjective; in practice, thus, none of them regards an independent existence for beauty.      

KEY WORDS: objectivity and subjectivity, beauty, Kant, Mulla Sadra, Sadra’s school.