Disinterestedness is an ancient theme in philosophical discourse on beauty and the fine arts, a theme which becomes explicit already in medieval philosophy. This theme, thus, in no way provides the feature by which modern aesthetic thought could be contrasted with that of earlier epochs. We must not connect disinterestedness with the modern aesthetic attitude nor must we make Kant responsible for originating the theme of disinterestedness as though this went together with his supposed subjectivism. Kant picks up the theme of disinterestedness from the Platonist Shaftesbury who employs it persistently against the Hobbesian view in which self-interest grounds human action.³⁶ Kant is the first to have achieved a non-platonic analysis of disinterestedness, however. His analysis of disinterestedness provides phenomenological evidence pointing towards the a priori principle of the power of judgment as such, the sensus communis.