Pillow is very effective in relating the aesthetics of Kant and Hegel to contemporary philsophical concerns. His approach is balanced and intelligent and will have a wide appeal to readers in aesthetics, literary theory, and postmodernism.
Rudolf A. Makkreel, Charles Howard Chandler Professor and Chair of Philosophy, Emory University
This book develops creative interpretations of Kant and Hegel on the cognitive status of aesthetic experience and judgment, relates these interpretations to contemporary positions on aesthetic cognition, and brings out of it all a subtle, precise, and disciplined position on the most challenging issues in aesthetic theory: (1) the relation between artist's intention, the meaning of the art work, and audience response; (2) the tension between normative judgments and openness to different interpretations; (3) the role of social context in what a work of art means and how it is judged. In every respect, Kirk Pillow's work aspires to and meets very high standards.
Ardis B. Collins, Loyola University Chicago, and Editor, The Owl of Minerva
Sublime Understanding is one of the most useful books on Kant's aesthetics to have appeared in a decade, and the most fruitful juxtaposition of Kantian and Hegelian aesthetics to have appeared in a generation. Pillow's account of sublime understanding is a valuable corrective to the postmodernist misinterpretation of the Kantian sublime as a symbol of the unintelligibility of human experience. His work will undoubtedly engender lively debate from both traditionalists and postmodernists.
Paul Guyer, Murray Professor in the Humanities, University of Pennsylvania