理性的自主性是康德批判哲學的成果，它衍生自由、民主、科學及進步思想，持續主導現代社會的發展。文化與價值層面的危機卻隨之而來，其正反效用引起爭議，康德亦是眾矢之的。筆者認為，從效用或結果來論康德哲學的疏失，基本上未能正確區辨理論的與應用的不同；再者，理性的自主性本身即蘊含「自我檢視、自我批判」的精神，在康德的批判計畫中，他已正視理性的認識與實踐之間的鴻溝，並提出美感活動來輔助理性的不足。筆者因而主張，檢視問題的首要途徑應當就其內部體系的癥結，而非應用的結果做出評價；此外，康德思想引起的現代性問題，亦可從康德提出的天才理論中尋求解決。為此，本文將從理性自主性造成的現代困境談起，並指出藝術創作的自主性可作為突破現代困境的解答。此種自主性的範式已隱藏於康德的天才理論之中，可就康德藝術天才的特點、天才與鑑賞、以及天才與模仿的思想中獲得印證，並延伸出現代的藝術觀點。然而，亦要評論康德未能從中發展出天才與鑑賞之間相互辯證的藝術史觀，正出於他將鑑賞的普遍性凌駕於藝術創作自主性之上的結果。

Rational autonomy is a result of Kant’s critical philosophy, from which liberty, science and progressive thought are derived and continue to dominate the development of modern society. Consequently, the crises of culture and values emerge, and Kant becomes the target of public criticism as the positive and negative effects of rational autonomy are harshly disputed. In my opinion, to judge Kant’s philosophy by its effects or results cannot lead to a correct distinction between theories and applications; moreover, rational autonomy itself contains the spirit of “self-reflection and self-criticism.” In Kant’s critique project, he already confronted the gap between the understanding and the practice of reason, proposing aesthetic activity to supplement the deficiency of reason. Therefore, I argue that the first and foremost way to address this issue is looking at the crux of its internal framework rather than evaluating the results of its application. Thus, this article first addresses the dilemma caused by rational autonomy and points out that the autonomy of artistic creation can solve the dilemma. The paradigm of this autonomy as part of Kant’s theory of genius can be proved by Kant’s thought about the characteristic of genius, talent and taste, as well as genius and imitation. However, it’s also pointed out the reason why Kant couldn’t develop the idea of art history as the dialect between talent and taste was exactly that he ranked the universality of taste over the autonomy of artistic creation.