Daniel Dearlove (KCL) - 2023-24 Students
daniel.dearlove@kcl.ac.uk

Kant, Perception, and Aesthetic Experience

Perception presents us with the things in the world. Using concepts, we make judgements about what perception reveals. But the things in the world are not conceptually structured, and neither is perception. So, there’s a puzzle: how can we be confident that our concepts map onto what perception reveals to us? Drawing on Kant’s theory of beauty, my project contends that the human mind is attuned to the shape of nature in various ways that it finds aesthetically pleasing. This aesthetic responsiveness to the world provides a preliminary map that enables us to acquire concepts that accurately mirror reality.

Primary Supervisor: Dr John Callanan

Secondary Supervisor: Professor Sacha Golob