This will be a sublime post--obscure, vast, infinite, difficult. Think of it more as a collection of resources and side conversations, rather than a coherent course of study.
The feeling of the sublime is, therefore, at once a feeling of displeasure, arising from the inadequacy of imagination in the aesthetic estimation of magnitude to attain to its estimation by reason, and a simultaneously awakened pleasure, arising from this very judgement of the inadequacy of the greatest faculty of sense being in accord with ideas of reason, so far as the effort to attain to these is for us a law . . . The mind feels itself set in motion in the representation of the sublime in nature; whereas in the aesthetic judgement upon what is beautiful therein it is in restful contemplation. This movement, especially in its inception, may be compared with vibration, i.e., with a rapidly alternating repulsion and attraction produced by one and the same object. The point of excess for the imagination (towards which it is driven in the apprehension of the intuition) is like an abyss in which it fears to lose itself, yet again for the rational idea of the supersensible it is not excessive, but conformable to law, and directed to drawing out such an effort on the part of the imagination: and so in turn as much a source of attraction as it was repellent to mere sensibility . . .
Bold, overhanging, and, as it were, threatening rocks, thunderclouds piled up the vault of heaven, borne along with flashes and peals, volcanos in all their violence of destruction, hurricanes leaving desolation in their track, the boundless ocean rising with rebellious force, the high waterfall of some mighty river, and the like, make our power of resistance of trifling moment in comparison with their might. But, provided our own position is secure, their aspect is all the more attractive for its fearfulness; and we readily call these objects sublime, because they raise the forces of the soul above the height of vulgar commonplace, and discover within us a power of resistance of quite another kind, which gives us courage to be able to measure ourselves against the seeming omnipotence of nature. In the immeasurableness of nature and the incompetence of our faculty for adopting a standard proportionate to the aesthetic estimation of the magnitude of its realm, we found our own limitation. But with this we also found in our rational faculty another non-sensuous standard, one which has that infinity itself under it as a unit, and in comparison with which everything in nature is small, and so found in our minds a pre-eminence over nature even in it immeasurability.
I have also posted an outline of Burke's text on an earlier version of the course web site (http://web.calstatela.edu/faculty/jgarret/467/Burke-Sublime.pdf).
You can access the full text of Kant's The Critique of Judgement online at the University of Adelaide (https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/k/kant/immanuel/k16j/index.html).
If you want to read an excellent overview of Kant on the sublime, take a look at Luke Harris' discussion (http://www.lukewhite.me.uk/sub_history.htm#kant). His resources on the sublime are also excellent for anyone wishing to dive deep into the "abyss in which the imagination is afraid to lose itself," as Kant refers to the sublime.
If you want to read an overview of Kant's theory of the mind and how that relates to the Romantic imagination, take a look at my discussion of this subject (http://web.calstatela.edu/faculty/jgarret/467/Kant-ModelOfTheMind.pdf).
Burke and Kant
First, let's start with some passages about the sublime from Burke and Kant.Edmund Burke
Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime.Immanuel Kant
For the sublime, in the strict sense of the word, cannot be contained in any sensuous form, but rather concerns ideas of reason, which, although no adequate presentation of them is possible, may be excited and called into the mind by that very inadequacy itself which does admit of sensuous presentation . . .The feeling of the sublime is, therefore, at once a feeling of displeasure, arising from the inadequacy of imagination in the aesthetic estimation of magnitude to attain to its estimation by reason, and a simultaneously awakened pleasure, arising from this very judgement of the inadequacy of the greatest faculty of sense being in accord with ideas of reason, so far as the effort to attain to these is for us a law . . . The mind feels itself set in motion in the representation of the sublime in nature; whereas in the aesthetic judgement upon what is beautiful therein it is in restful contemplation. This movement, especially in its inception, may be compared with vibration, i.e., with a rapidly alternating repulsion and attraction produced by one and the same object. The point of excess for the imagination (towards which it is driven in the apprehension of the intuition) is like an abyss in which it fears to lose itself, yet again for the rational idea of the supersensible it is not excessive, but conformable to law, and directed to drawing out such an effort on the part of the imagination: and so in turn as much a source of attraction as it was repellent to mere sensibility . . .
Bold, overhanging, and, as it were, threatening rocks, thunderclouds piled up the vault of heaven, borne along with flashes and peals, volcanos in all their violence of destruction, hurricanes leaving desolation in their track, the boundless ocean rising with rebellious force, the high waterfall of some mighty river, and the like, make our power of resistance of trifling moment in comparison with their might. But, provided our own position is secure, their aspect is all the more attractive for its fearfulness; and we readily call these objects sublime, because they raise the forces of the soul above the height of vulgar commonplace, and discover within us a power of resistance of quite another kind, which gives us courage to be able to measure ourselves against the seeming omnipotence of nature. In the immeasurableness of nature and the incompetence of our faculty for adopting a standard proportionate to the aesthetic estimation of the magnitude of its realm, we found our own limitation. But with this we also found in our rational faculty another non-sensuous standard, one which has that infinity itself under it as a unit, and in comparison with which everything in nature is small, and so found in our minds a pre-eminence over nature even in it immeasurability.
Some Resources on Burke and Kant
You can access the full text of Burke's A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful online at Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15043/15043-h/15043-h.htm).I have also posted an outline of Burke's text on an earlier version of the course web site (http://web.calstatela.edu/faculty/jgarret/467/Burke-Sublime.pdf).
You can access the full text of Kant's The Critique of Judgement online at the University of Adelaide (https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/k/kant/immanuel/k16j/index.html).
If you want to read an excellent overview of Kant on the sublime, take a look at Luke Harris' discussion (http://www.lukewhite.me.uk/sub_history.htm#kant). His resources on the sublime are also excellent for anyone wishing to dive deep into the "abyss in which the imagination is afraid to lose itself," as Kant refers to the sublime.
If you want to read an overview of Kant's theory of the mind and how that relates to the Romantic imagination, take a look at my discussion of this subject (http://web.calstatela.edu/faculty/jgarret/467/Kant-ModelOfTheMind.pdf).
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