Unconscious representation in Kant: a reflection on musical fantasy

Abstract

This article aims to present and analyze the concept of unconscious representation in the aesthetic sphere in Kant using the example of musical fantasy. Unconscious representations constitute a topic debated by Kant, especially in the writings of Anthropology and refer to the unconscious cognitive activity present in the faculties of understanding, reason and imagination. In Anthropology from a pragmatic point of view and other textbooks of Anthropology, the theme is highlighted from the aesthetic point of view with regard to a particular example: the composition of musical fantasy, an used by John Locke in his Essays to present the act of improvisation as a cognitive activity that would have its vital principle not
in the unconscious activity, but in the association of ideas. In addition to an
example, the recurrence of the example in Kant reflects his theorization and
understanding of unconscious aesthetic representations as a broad and
positive field.