  Herz’s two important philosophical works were his Considerations from Speculative Philosophy (Betrachtungen aus der spekulativen Weltweisheit) of 1771 and his Essay on Taste and the Causes of its Variety (Versuch über den Geschmack und die Ursachen seiner Verschiedenheit), first published in 1776 and then in an expanded edition in 1790—the same year as Kant’s Critique of the Power of Judgment.  The contrast between the two works in aesthetics is interesting, because while some arguments in Kant’s work can be construed as subtle criticisms of some of Herz’s positions, Herz finished even the second edition of his book without any knowledge of Kant’s criticisms. In general, he remained closer to the Wolffian and Baumgartian theory of beauty and taste that had been transmitted to him through Mendelssohn than to the position of his erstwhile teacher Kant, but he also shared Sulzer’s emphasis on mental activity and Herder’s emphasis on the social dimension of art while introducing some novel positions of his own.