Share my admiration!

You may have noticed for yourself: if you liked the landscape, painting, music, then your delight must be shared by your loved ones! You are struck by the insensitivity of the other person to what delights you, such a lack of taste revolts you. Maybe you are a dictator (although you don’t admit it to yourself) and your authoritarian nature manifests itself precisely in the field of aesthetics? Not at all, Immanuel Kant believed. If you do not just exclaim “how beautiful!”, but look for consonance with your delight in the feelings of other people, then you realize that this aesthetic pleasure reflects the true essence of a person, the integrity of nature, and not just his cultural baggage *. That is why the one whom beauty has left indifferent seems to you an outcast, an exception from the human race …

You froze in front of the brilliant painting by Chagall, you caught your breath at the sight of the expanse of the sea. Is it all wonderful? For you, in this case, there can be no question of hearing an answer like “probably” or “this is a matter of taste.” Yes, beautiful is beautiful. And if it is really beautiful, then absolutely for everyone! This is non-negotiable. A strong aesthetic emotion rejects any relativity of judgments and indifference to the other, which only pretends to be respectful of his otherness from ourselves. This is the meaning of Kant’s famous phrase: «Aesthetic judgment is subjective, but universal.» Subjectively, because there is no criterion for defining beauty — in this we trust only our emotions. Naturally, our tastes have always been and will be different, everyone has their own concept of beauty. But the main thing is our thirst for beauty, our craving for it. The moment when we experience aesthetic pleasure is at the same time the moment of our turning to others, our impulse. Perhaps it is precisely such an impulse, a keen desire to share one’s feelings with other people, that makes the aesthetic experience so sharp, filled with emotion? We seem to foresee, anticipate agreement, we spread the feeling of delight caused by the harmony of the masterpiece to the possibility of harmony in relations with other people. As Stendhal said, “beauty is the promise of happiness”**. Happiness shared — that’s what he had in mind. It is clear that this promise will not always be fulfilled — but the intention is more important here. Perhaps you will say that you are able to admire the beautiful without others agreeing with you? I will answer you on behalf of Kant: your feeling is impure. And if you say that even your strongest admiration for beauty does not reflect inner harmony, but rather an inner conflict, and therefore no desire for harmony with others is born from it … then I cannot tell you anything. And so does Kant.

* I. Kant «Criticism of the ability of judgment» (Science, 2006).

** Stendhal «About Love» (Azbuka, Azbuka-Atticus, 2011).