Kant on Common Sense and Aesthetic Community: Or, Why Fionn should see the Plumen 001

Why should we make judgments of beauty? According to the aesthetic hedonist, it is because of the pleasure that beauty affords. In a recent paper, Dominic McIver Lopes presents a Kantian alternative to aesthetic hedonism. The reason we should make judgments of beauty, on this account, is because it is an expression of autonomy, and we always have reason to judge autonomously. In this paper, I present a different Kantian alternative to aesthetic hedonism. On my account, the reason that we should make judgments of beauty is that we are members of the community of judging subjects, and as such, we have added reason to accept the invitations of others to engage in joint aesthetic reflection. This does not, however, compete with the autonomy-based account. Instead, it shows that aesthetic autonomy can only be exercised in a community of judging subjects.