Aesthetic Attitude to the Arabesque in Islamic Art, according to Free and Dependent Beauty in Kant`s Aesthetics

Kant discerns various beauties not in objects but in aesthetic attitude. Some approaches absorb practical, theoretical, and even direct, and sensory interests. As a result, beauty becomes dependent, and its expression in an aesthetic proposition is a symbol of moral concepts. If the aesthetician`s point of view is based on mere design and composition, she expresses a pure aesthetic proposition, but if she focuses on free materials or colors and sounds, makes use of symbolic representation which alludes to the moral concepts. Dependent beauty in Kant's discussions deals with the substance or content of the motif, and then design and composition will set aside. In this case, not only beauty but also branched-out concepts of pure beauty will prevail. Kant considered Arabesque as a motif in the first place as free beauty and non-symbolic. Here the question arises: is Kant's classification of Arabesque as free and non-symbolic beauty can be regarded as an appropriate perspective for the controversy arising from adapted approaches to Islamic art? Kant's aesthetics may seem to be supportive of new approaches in Islamic art. From this perspective, we can remember the very pure beauty is on the basis of the prior harmony of understanding and imagination which can be considered as a kind of the sublime. This article proposes the aesthetic approach as the foundation of the historical and symbolic attitude to Islamic art.