Kant, Hanslick and Music

Kant and Hanslick on Music and the Beauty Thereof

Several theories have been formulated regarding how art should be evaluated aesthetically and how this aesthetic evaluation can be applied to music. While some contend that aesthetics and music should be evaluated from a Marxist perspective in which socio-historic factors are taken into consideration, others contend that a work of art should be judged based upon its form or structure. In order to better understand what can and is considered beautiful, one can look to Immanuel Kant's The Critique of Judgment; likewise, Eduard Hanslick in Vom Musikalisch-Schonen: Ein Betrag Zur Revision der Asthetik der Tonkunst (On the Musically Beautiful: A Contribution Towards the Revision of the Aesthetics of Music) is able to build upon Kant's arguments regarding beauty and attempt to define what makes music aesthetically pleasing.

Music is a special kind of art because it is...
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