Explanation of Kantian Disinterested Aesthetic Pleasure from the Perspective of Cognitive Sciences
Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Islamic Azad University Science and Research Branch: Tehran, Tehran, IR
2
Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy of Art, Faculty of Law, Theology, and Political Science, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract
The attribution and perception of beauty in the phenomena of existence have consistently been one of the most intriguing and challenging subjects throughout the history of human intellectual thought. Philosophizing, with its diverse tools and approaches, has been and remains one of the primary avenues for addressing this issue. Among the philosophers who have made significant contributions to the study of beauty, its essence, and its underlying causes, Immanuel Kant stands out. His notion of "disinterested pleasure" in encountering the beautiful, elaborated in Critique of Judgment, is one of his most profound philosophical reflections. In recent decades, the accelerated growth of empirical sciences, particularly neuroscience, has led scientists to explore scientific understandings of shared topics between the humanities, arts, and their own disciplines—including beauty and the pleasure it evokes. Their research has yielded notable findings, which, alongside observed parallels, have facilitated interdisciplinary studies bridging philosophy and cognitive sciences. This essay presents a descriptive and analytical examination of Kantian disinterested aesthetic pleasure and the explanations offered by cognitive sciences. The study reveals that despite the complexity of this relationship, the distinction between "wanting" and "liking" within the brain’s reward system enables the possibility of disinterested pleasure in the Kantian sense.
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