These grounds are the so-called principle of “subjective purposiveness”
and the contemplation of an object with respect to this principle in a so-called
“free harmonious play” of our cognitive powers.
w says k thinks it is possible to establish grounds for easthetics and that this has never been though about before and that it should revea something abour ushumans.A better understanding of these a priori grounds of judgments of taste
will enable us to explain the phenomenon of the je ne sais quoi.
In order to decide whether or not something is beautiful, we do not relate the
representation by means of understanding to the object for cognition, but rather
relate it by means of the imagination (perhaps combined with the understanding)
to the subject and its feeling of pleasure or displeasure. The judgment of taste is
therefore not a cognitive judgment, hence not a logical one, but is rather aesthetic,
by which is understood one whose determining ground cannot be other than
subjective. (Section 1, 203)
