The Figurative Language of Nature: Expression and Meaning in Kant’s Aesthetic Judgment

Drawing on the intimate connection between beauty and morality in Kant’s Critique of the Power of Judgment, the aim of this paper is to elucidate Kant’s doctrine of the moral meaning that natural beauty is said to carry for us in the act of aesthetic judgment. I propose that the key to this meaning lies in the expressive nature of beauty. “Expression” is to be analyzed in terms of the way in which nature, according to Kant, “figuratively speaks to us in its beautiful forms” when we experience it aesthetically. Such language that nature brings to us, as Kant states, “seems to have a higher meaning”. I propose that there is a triadic connection between 1) the figurative language of natural beauty, 2) the expression of the judgment of natural beauty, and 3) its higher (moral) meaning. This connection is most clearly demonstrated by the intellectual interest that a person of a “good moral disposition” takes in the presentation of beauty in nature.