A Rousseauian Reading of Universal Subjectivity and General Will in theSecond Moment of Kant's Critique of Judgment

In the second moment of his third critique, Kant elucidates subjective universality of judgments of taste. This universality demands others’ conformity as a kind of right. Some of Kant’s interpreters link this demand to morality, but it seems that Kant’s argument for universality of judgments of taste is ambiguous because in some parts of his book he differentiates between morality and thedemanding conformity. Necessity of demanding a conformity, and not expecting it, enhances this ambiguity because brings it closer to the practical reason. It seems that juridical reading of subjective universality of judgments of taste can explain this universality as a moralmatter, without reducing it to morality. In Kant’s opinion judgments of taste entail conformity to a “universal voice”. Through the resemblance between Rousseau’s idea of “general will” and Kant’s “universal voice”, we would be able to shed light on this ambiguity. Aesthetic judgments need others and therefore there is no universality for it except in society.