Abstract

This paper seeks to disclose the underlying tension in Kant’s Critique of Judgment. It is the tension between Logos and Eros which is apparent in much of Western philosophy but surfaces perhaps most dramatically in Kant’s third Critique. Despite its manifest commitment to rationality, significant philosophical expression is unthinkable without inspiration. As Plato put it, philosophy is a “divine madness,” a madness which cannot comprehend its own origin, and yet has as its goal the establishment of a rational Logos as the ground of both thinking and action. Kant’s Critique of Judgment is in part a reflection upon the “Dionysian” not only in art, but in thinking as well.