Loftiness is one of the leading categories of Western aesthetics. In his Critique of Judgment, kant based his analysis of loftiness on the aesthetic traditions since ancient Greece, showing a distinctive temporal connotation. The time of loftiness was not empirically linear, but constantly responded to the current from the future as the purpose and continuously reminded the current openness and unfinishedness in the manner of mission, hence including a timetranscending and more original temporal connotation. Therefore an exploration of the temporal connotation of kant’s understanding of loftiness can further project the inner association between contemporary aesthetics and kant’s aesthetics, which is of great significance to understanding contemporary aesthetics and sense of aesthetic time.

Kant’s aesthetics; loftiness; sense of time