Kant’s third critique, The Critique of Judgment, was published in 1790, two years after the Critique of Practical Reason. Although it did not receive the immediate attention of the previous two critiques—some even dismissed it as the product of senility—its historical impact has been significant. Kant himself looked upon it as “bridge between realms”, and the completion of his critical project.

Kant established a hierarchy of fine arts based on the capacity to engage the imagination and understanding and their potential for moral and intellectual improvement and the stimulation of afterthought [Nachdenken]. First came the speaking arts of poetry and rhetoric, then the "formative arts" such as painting, sculpture, and architecture, and, finally, the "arts of the play of sensations" such as music.

For Kant, nature, which appears purposive [Zweckmäßig] to the human mind, is the model or standard for artistic beauty. An appreciation of natural beauty suggests a moral disposition, whereas even “a hardened old usurer” could take an interest in art—pointing to the pre-eminence of natural beauty. The artist (genius) aims to create art that appears as if it were a product of nature.

The core of aesthetic judgment of both........

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