Thursday, July 31, 2008

I Think I Kant

I was reading a record review today about Nico Muhly's new album. Muhly's music is very much in the vein of Steve Reich's Phase-ology, however the reviewer invokes Kant and the Sublime. Seems appropriate enough to me.

Long story short the reviewer was talking about the sublime being an event that is unable to be apprehended by imagination. I like his reading of the Third Critique to this point.

He goes on to interpret that the imagination is unable to span the breadth of nature. Meaning, you can' t imagine as grandly as nature can produce. Is that really true?

Perhaps this is true if you are trying to imagine Reality. One is able to imagine realities not even remotely like the one in which we live, in which case the imagination has Reality in spades. (see Neo Rauch)

I have been wrestling with whether or not perceptions guide reality. I think imagination has a lot to do with it. Is reality constrained by some noumenal Reality? I just can't tell. I can only retreat to what my senses tell me. And then I hit this "reality is subjective" crap that is left over from Grad School. Then I get mad.

So. Anyway...The reason behind a post like this is because I have forgotten my camera at home for about the last week. No pictures to post means posting about the "nature" of stuff. Just letting my mind wander.

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