Kant the Alchemist and the Philosophers’ Stone

Anthony Savile (King's College London), Alex Grzankowski (Birkbeck, University of London, School of Advanced Study, University of London)

Abstract: Proust tells us: ‘The creation of the world did not take place at the beginning; the world is perpetually created every day’; he then has Gilberte Swann turn to dross the gold of her social position as she becomes marquise de Saint-Loup and subsequently duchesse de Guermantes. Kant, by contrast, turns the subjectively understood dross of aesthetic taste into the objective gold of richly fulfilled culture. The stone he relies on is advertised on the cover of his book: it is Urteilskraft, the power of judgment -- teleologically deployed.  Nonetheless, his magic is no less fragile than is Proust’s.

The lecture will be followed by a presentation of a festschrift (Routledge) to Mark Sainsbury, by Anthony Savile and Alex Grzankowski (Birkbeck College). 

Reception will follow in the Anatomy Museum. Registration is required.