On The Logical Process Of The Freedom Of "Self-consciousness" In Kant’s Aesthetics

The subjective turn of Kant’s critical philosophy not only prompts Kant to take transcendental self-consciousness as the important subjective function which forms the knowledge of representation in chapter “transcendental deduction” in "Critique of Pure Reason",but also regards self-discipline as the main access to freedom in his moral philosophy.Thus,self-consciousness is combined closely with the target of achieving human freedom,so as becoming the subject and motivation to transit from nature to freedom.However,due to the division between priori thing-in-itself and empirical representation,it is difficult to fulfill this transition.Therefore,Kant’s aesthetics is considered to be the solution to this problem,and naturally,the problem of achieving freedom of self-consciousness must get deep into its aesthetical theory where it transforms into how self-consciousness achieves its freedom.The task of this paper is to study the inherently theoretical path and logical process.Besides,under the precondition of clarifying key concepts,it will compound this issue from microscopic and macroscopic perspectives,and discuss its influences on in Western contemporary and modern aesthetics.This paper is divided into four parts.The first part introduces the development of Western concepts of freedom and self-consciousness.It includes three aspects: firstly,the development and evolution of the concept of self-consciousness in the pre-Kantian era;Secondly,the connotation and features of the concept of self-consciousness in the context of Kant’s critical philosophy;Thirdly,the features of Kant’s view of practical freedom and its relationship with self-consciousness.The second part starts from the inner structure of self-consciousness,where discusses the important function of self-consciousness and its relation with the process to freedom.There are three aspects.Firstly,the relationship between self-consciousness and the reflective character of reflective judgment;Secondly,the relation between the purposive principle and the transcendental freedom;Thirdly,it explains the important role of imagination in the process of freedom of Self-consciousness,which is the core function of the operation of reflective judgment.The third part,according to the development of Kant’s text,is about the concepts of sublime,which discusses the sublime experience and the feeling of respect from the perspective of moral psychology.Secondly,it analyses the feeling of respect that arises from the experience of the sublime and compares it with the counterpart feeling in moral philosophy.The fourth part analyzes the development of the German idealism aesthetics and the western aesthetic the freedom of Selfconsciousness after the 20 th century.On one hand,it explains the vertical development of German idealism;on the other hand,it explores the horizontal expansion of modern western aesthetics to this problem.The fifth part is the conclusion.