ABSTRACT
The Kantian resolution to the quarrel between David Hume and Jean-Jacques Rousseau is that the reflective "common sense", which operates as a condition of communication for Hume and representation for Rousseau, may be different in degree. Immanuel Kant's concerns about the possibilities and limits of aesthetic discourse were longstanding. Reflections recorded from the early 1770s show that Kant was well aware of the problems that would be at the heart of the posthumous quarrel between Hume and Rousseau, but he had yet to settle on the terms of the debate, much less an adequate solution. Rousseau's most sustained reflection on the common ground between linguistic discourse and aesthetic experience occurs in the Essay on the Origins of Languages. The philosophical importance of resuscitating the notion of "quarreling" in Kant is not only to fill in a fascinating, but also to reconstitute a position not otherwise well represented on the contemporary scene.
