Understanding Music's Theological Significance: A Kantian Approach

My research has focused on using Kant’s aesthetic theory to analyse the epistemological characteristics of musical beauty, determining whether we can understand claims that music is theologically significant in a way consistent with a Kantian epistemology. In particular, I am interested in the way that Kant postulates a ‘common sense’ to explain the apparent universality of aesthetic judgements, and all of the questions that such a common sense raises. Is a common sense required for aesthetic judgements to have universal validity? Do we, in fact, assume that our judgements of beauty are universal? What is the nature of this common sense, and what does it tell us about both the way in which beauty is perceived, and its objective characteristics? I have focused specifically on how these questions can be addressed in light of theological understandings of beauty and its relationship to divine being.

James Jirtle
www.dur.ac.uk/j.v.jirtle