Abstract: The subject of this article is a study of the problem of metaphysical substantiation of aesthetics in Kant's philosophy, conducted during the analysis of two editions of the introduction to the Critique of the Faculty of Judgment. The results of the conducted research allow us to find out to what extent Kant's interpretation of aesthetics is metaphysically loaded. For the first time since Plato and Aristotle, the metaphysical horizon opens up again in Kantian aesthetics. Special attention is paid to the consideration of the "Critique of the Power of Judgment" as the first work in the history of thought in which aesthetics appears as a system-forming element of the construction of metaphysics. Kant's aesthetics allows us to look at the current problems of the metaphysics of art again and in a new way; being a spiritual motivation for the transformation of human nature, it is something inextricably linked with the manifestation of the metaphysical in us. In domestic and foreign literature, only some approaches to this topic are outlined (V. F. Asmus, T. I. Oizerman, E. Kuenemann, etc.), the author's special contribution to the study of this topic is a holistic analysis of poorly formalized problems associated with the study of metaphysical structures of Kantian aesthetics, with the identification of relevant grounds for it. In both editions, we are talking about the metaphysical prolegomena of aesthetics as a kind of exegesis of the entire transcendental philosophy of Kant. At the same time, aesthetic reflection is embedded in metaphysics as a form of completion of the project of the entire culture of the human mind. The measurement of the aesthetic a priori leads to conclusions about ways to use means to achieve all the goals that befits humanity.

Keywords: art, creativity, aesthetics, reflection, conscience, cognition, transcendentalism, metaphysics, culture, Kant