Citation :

Md. Asad, "Emotion, Judgment, and Musical Experience: A Comparative Study of Rasa Theory and Kantian Aesthetics," International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, vol. 13, no. 5, pp. 21-31, 2026. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.14445/23942703/IJHSS-V13I5P103

Abstract

Musical experience touches upon a level of human consciousness where emotion and judgement are inextricably linked. However, Eastern and Western philosophical traditions have taken different approaches to explaining this experience. While existing studies have analysed Indian and Kantian aesthetics separately, a comprehensive theoretical analysis of the two approaches focusing on musical experience has so far been lacking. This study aims to address this by developing a dialogical aesthetic framework through textual and interpretive analyses of Bharata Muni’s Nāṭyaśāstra, Abhinavagupta’s Abhinav Bharati, and Kant’s Critique of Judgement. The analysis shows that the sādhāraṇīkaraṇa of aesthetics, the transformation of personal emotion into universal aesthetic experience, and the Kantian idea of subjective universality, the claim of universal validity of personal aesthetic judgement through the sensus communis, are two deeply parallel but different philosophical insights. The study also reveals that musical experience has two complementary dimensions: a dimension of affective and evaluative content related to the Rasa theory and a dimension of reflective aesthetic judgment related to Kant’s aesthetics. These two dimensions prove to be intertwined in the aesthetic experience. This integrated approach opens new analytical possibilities in comparative music aesthetics and provides a theoretical basis for future empirical music psychology and cross-cultural aesthetic research.

Keywords

Comparative Aesthetics, Kantian Aesthetics, Musical Experience, Rasattva, Subjective universality.

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