The Gift

Fruit falls from the trees and clear water runs, and none of it was arranged for you; it only feels that way. Paul Guyer opens Immanuel Kant's Critique of the Power of Judgment with the term the whole book leans on, purposiveness, and he builds it the long way, starting from Aristotle's final causes. He explains how one person's pleasure can claim the agreement of every human mind, and he lands on a question most theories of art still circle: why does a truly beautiful thing never wear out? There is a handshake in this episode. It may be the best image in modern aesthetics.