The Aestheticity of the Sublime 1 (original) (raw)

NOTES ON THE AESTHETIC CONCEPT SUBLIME

The aesthetic concept of sublime, as Kant formulated from Burke, seems to overcome itself aesthetic, in that the Form stops fulfill major role in the experiment. It is then a transcendental and cognitive experience, in which the imagination in free play of faculties, builds a possible meaning and this activity reveals the dimension of human freedom.

The role of imagination in the sublime

Kant: Making Reason Intuitive, 2007

In the aesthetic texts of Friedrich Schiller, undoubtedly one of the most perceptive readers of Immanuel Kant, we come across the first traces of a reception of Kant's theory of the sublime which tends to completely bypass its critical and transcendental texture. This resulted in the formulation of the conditions for a metaphysical appropriation of the relevant Kantian analyses. By understanding the feeling of the sublime [Erhabenes] as an elevation [Erhebung] above the limit of sensibility, this appropriation prepares the ground for a dialectic sublation [Aufhebung] of the limit at issue. Especially in his essays on the sublime, Schiller categorically detaches himself from the formal and subjective character of the Kantian approach, while at the same time he transfers the feeling of the sublime, which, in Kant, is caused mainly by natural phenomena, to the sphere of art. This allows him to define as sublime not only the subject's feelings but also the objects that appear to cause them. But if the feeling Kantian distinction between the mathematically and the dynamically sublime is rejected as minimally enlightening: "But because the concepts dynamically and mathematically can shed no light on whether the sphere of the sublime is exhausted through this classification, for this reason I have given preference to the classification into theoretically and practically sublime." 1 What is remarkable in this case is that Schiller concentrates exclusively on the dynamically sublime, which he names practically sublime and also "the sublime of praxis," 2 because here the comparison between the subject and the natural phenomena that threaten its biological hypostasis activates practical Reason. Indeed, in his theory on art and tragedy, the German dramatist completely ignores the mathematically sublime, which he renames theoretically sublime. But this should not surprise us. Schiller studied the phenomenon of the sublime mainly from the standpoint of one who was interested in the conditions that govern the process of artistic creation. 3 From the point of view of the artist, sublime nature as the object of the mathematically sublime is simply a metaphor for the absolutely unique sublime object that exists in the universe, i.e., moral law, the sublimity [Erhabenheit] of which acquires a sensible form through the hero of the bourgeois drama. But this is possible because the sublimity of the hero finds its ideal expression in its moral integrity, which remains intact, even after his fall. This is also the source of the peculiar passion which characterizes bourgeois dramas, since it is through them that "the mechanism for the elimination of social evils" 4 is vividly illustrated. This mechanism consists of the symbolic salvage of the hero's moral dignity, even at the instant of his tragic destruction. However, Schiller's main objection concerns Kant's attempt to differentiate the sublime from the beautiful. At first sight, he seems to wish to preserve the Kantian distinction: "Without the beautiful there would be a continuous dispute between our natural determination and our rational determination… Without the sublime, beauty would make us forget our dignity." 5 Soon, however, it is revealed that, in essence, he is aiming at a fusion of these two aesthetic categories: "Only when the sublime comes 1

Turn from Sensibility to Rationality: Kant’s Concept of the Sublime

Kant on Intuition. Western and Asian Perspectives on Transcendental Idealism, 2019

There are various dichotomies in Kant’s philosophy: sensibility vs. rationality, nature vs. freedom, cognition vs. morality, noumenon vs. phenomenon, among others. There are also different ways of mediating these dichotomies, which is the systematic undertaking of Kant’s Critique of the Power of Judgment. One of the most important concepts in this work is the sublime, which exemplifies the connections between the different dichotomies; this fact means the concept’s construction is full of tension. On the one hand, as a pure reflection of aesthetic judgment the sublime must be without interest or purpose, but on the other hand it is “based on the concept of reason” (KU AA:292). On the one hand, the sublime “represents merely the subjective play of the powers of the mind (imagination and reason) as harmonious” (KU AA5:258), but on the other hand, reason “exercises dominion over sensibility” and the imagination is “purposively determined in accordance with a law” of reason (KU AA5:268f). Taking into account these problems concerning the essential definition the sublime, this paper will first illustrate how the sublime embodies the a priori principle of aesthetic judgment through contrasting the judgment of the sublime with the judgment of taste in order to establish a basic logical frame for the judgment of the sublime. Second, this paper redefines the boundary between the mathematically and dynamically sublime in order to reveal both the coexistence of contemplation and movement within the sublime and the unrevealed function of reason and imagination. Finally, contrasting the sublime with moral feeling, this paper elaborates the turning-structure (from sensibility to rationality and from object-intuition to idea-exhibition) of the sublime.

The Sublime, the feeling of spirit and the feeling of life

2019

The following paper is an extract of my master Thesis entitled “The Kantian Sublime. Among Aesthetics, Ethics and Anthropology”. The sample I offer highlights the sublime of the Critique of the Power of Judgement not only as a feeling, but mostly as a feeling of spirit, making a comparison with the feeling of life, that is rather accounted for by the beauty. In showing the main features of these two kinds of feelings, on my account, is argued that the feeling of spirit triggered by the sublime works as transcendental awareness of the subject, making it aware of its supersensible ground more than what is carried out by the beauty.

The Aesthetic Category of the Sublime as a

The aesthetic category of the sublime, as expounded by Western discourse, is built upon the precultural experience of awe and the idea of greatness derived from that experience� Accordingly, it may be treated as a potentially universal category that comes in several cultural variants� The aim of this study is to present a methodology in which the material sublime is used to systematise and analyse a variety of literary techniques that constitute the persuasive force of Sanskrit grand narratives (itihāsas, purāṇas, and mahākāvyas)� The model of the material sublime described here is meant to be compared and supplemented with elements of Sanskrit literary theory�

The sublime and the exploration

In this short essay I will try to study the relation between the concept of sublime and the impulse of the human towards the exploration. The main thesis of the essay is that the concept of the sublimeunited with the curiosityis the main cause of the human admiration towards the sublime and the trigger to the exploration of what causes the feeling of the sublime. "The sublime and the exploration" Víctor Pajuelo Madrigal 1. The philosophical concept Página 2 de 17

Transcendent Subjectivity- The Sublime....pdf

Philosophy as a method tries to identify – through logical analysis and phenomenological description – the conceptual basis of different modes of knowing and valuing. It is orientated towards constants in human experience, those features that enable the very possibility of knowing and valuing. However, whilst there are constants in experience, these are often realized differently, under different historical and cultural conditions. The realm of aesthetics is rich in such examples. In the present Chapter , it will be explored in relation to the sublime and pictorial art (with a few references to other media). I start from a radical adaptation and revision of theories set forth by Kant in his Critique of the Power of Judgment. It is then explained in detail why – despite its grounding in experiential constants - the sublime only emerges as an overt and sustained feature of aesthetic sensibility from the late eighteenth-century onwards. I then go on to consider why the sublime seems to disappear from European sensibility, only to re-emerge with great force in the postmodern era.

The Sublime Conditions of Contemporary Art

Deleuze's relationship to Kant is intricate and fundamental, given that Deleuze develops his transcendental philosophy of difference in large part out of Kant's work. In doing so he utilises the moment of the sublime from the third Critique as the genetic model for the irruption of the faculties beyond their capture within common sense. In this sense, the sublime offers the model not only for transcendental genesis but also for aesthetic experience unleashed from any conditions of possibility. As a result, sensation in both its wider and more specifically artistic senses (senses that become increasingly entwined in Deleuze's work) will explode the clichés of human perception, and continually reinvent the history of art without recourse to representation. In tracing Deleuze's 'aesthetics' from Kant we are therefore returned to the viciously anti-human (and Nietzschean) trajectory of Deleuze's work, while simultaneously being forced to address the extent of its remaining Idealism. Both of these elements play an important part in relation to Deleuze's 'modernism', and to the discussion of his possible relevance to contemporary artistic practices.