What concept did Immanuel Kant introduce regarding beauty?

Immanuel Kant introduced the concept that beauty is rooted in the interaction between the viewer and the artwork. This idea emphasizes that our aesthetic experience of beauty is not solely an inherent quality of the object itself, but rather emerges from our engagement with it. According to Kant, this interplay involves both personal perception and emotional response, leading to the conclusion that beauty is, to some extent, subjective—a matter of individual taste shaped by our experiences, cultural context, and emotional state.

Kant believed that judgments of beauty are based on a combination of sensory perception and a shared human sensibility. This perspective recognizes that while artworks can possess certain qualities that invite appreciation, the actual experience of beauty arises in the mind of the observer, making it a dynamic and relational process. This notion contrasts with the idea that beauty is simply an inherent quality of objects or defined strictly by the intentions of the artist, highlighting the complexity of aesthetic experiences in the realm of art.