Authors:Robert Clewis Abstract: Can painting evoke an experience of the sublime, understood in the terms adopted by Kant in the Critique of the Power of Judgment' I will present three considerations that imply that painting cannot evoke the Kantian sublime. I will then point out some problems related to each consideration. I will explain how some paintings can evoke an experience of the sublime, even when painting is understood in terms of the eighteenth-century European context. In this way, I intend to show the real possibility of the Kantian sublime as a reaction to pictorial art. PubDate: 2024-07-15
Authors:Matías Oroño Abstract: The Kantian theory of the mathematical sublime can be studied from the point of view of the concept of the infinite, which admits a double perspective. On the one hand, we have the notion of sensible infinity (which must be understood as the capacity to always add a new unit to a previously given sensible magnitude). On the other hand, we find the infinite as something absolutely given. This latter conception of the infinite demands that we situate ourselves on the suprasensible realm. I argue that in the Kantian theory of the sublime both notions of the infinite coexist, for it is a kind of aesthetic judgment that takes as its point of departure the estimation of objects which, because of their large size, suggest the idea of sensible infinity. And in turn, the latter rests on the infinite as something absolutely given, which can only be explained if we understand the absolutely infinite as a suprasensible magnitude. PubDate: 2024-07-15
Authors:Matteo Rossetti Abstract: Within the first book of Manilius’ Astronomica the exposition of doctrines concerning the Milky Way plays a central role. The poet presents the galaxy as such an eye-catching, luminous object that cannot fail to arouse the viewer’s emotions. Finally, wonder at the sublime spectacle of the galaxy is for Manilius the stimulus that prompts men to inquire about the causes of that celestial phenomenon. This article aims to analyze the relationship between emotion, sublime, and knowledge in the context of Roman culture in the early imperial age. Manilius’ passage is then compared with Chapter 35 of Ps-Longinus’ Treatise on the Sublime, in which the theme of wonder at the grandeur of nature is central. Finally, as a demonstration of the vitality of the link between emotion and knowledge, a comparison is offered between Manilius and Chapter 5 of Seneca’s De otio. PubDate: 2024-07-15
Authors:Alice Chirico Abstract: In this work, I explored the complex relationship between psychological awe and the philosophical concept of the sublime. While psychology has often considered awe as a positive emotion distinct from the negative variant of the sublime, philosophical discourse has suggested an inherent historical and aesthetic connection between the two phenomena. I aimed to provide a preliminary contribution towards solving this puzzle, by relying on empirical findings from psychology and drawing from philosophical theories of Longinus, Kant, Schopenhauer and Hegel. I suggested a conceptualization of awe as a potential cultural evolution of the sublime, thus highlighting an overlap of key dimensions, such as vastness, self-transcendence, and alteration of sense of time. Moreover, I outlined practical insights and guidelines for eliciting awe in everyday life. Finally, the transformative nature of awe was explored by integrating psychological and philosophical perspectives, thus enabling a broader understanding of complex emotions and how they can influence human experience and wellbeing. PubDate: 2024-07-15
Authors:Silvia Vizzardelli Abstract: There is a structural proximity between the concept of the sublime and that of anguish; a proximity that, however, does not prevent the scene from being very different in terms of the affects involved. With regard to structure, at stake is a field that involves the pulsating, differential simultaneity of absence and presence, death and life. The principle of mutual exclusion is replaced by the logic of contradictory inclusion. I will limit myself, in this context, to recounting a brief stretch of the history of the sublime, little travelled, in which the juxtaposition with anguish, a heterozygotic twin, brings to the fore the sameness of their structure - centred on the synchrony of opposites - and the inversion of the affects involved. The authors I will summon, in this brief stretch, are Jean-François Lyotard, as regards the sublime, and Jacques Lacan, as regards anguish. The theory of the sublime and that of anguish are frequently accompanied by the metaphorical evocation of membranes, tissue partitions. In what sense do the feeling of the sublime and the affection of anguish have to do with these tissue lacerations that, although belonging to the body, are, in truth, hors-corps' They are organs or parts of organs with such a slender structure as to be almost unreal, they are freed and go their own way, bearers of a pure life that slips and swirls, to the point of disquieting for a trait of immortality that they carry with them. PubDate: 2024-07-15
Authors:Serena Feloj Abstract: This article explores an actualisation of the Kantian sublime with reference to environmental aesthetics, examining its relevance and transformation in light of the current debate around the 'environmental humanities'. The main thesis of this article is that it is possible to actualise the Kantian sublime in the context of environmental aesthetics, emphasising the counterpurposiveness element of nature. This aspect makes it possible to show a dialectical relationship with nature, overcoming the mere opposition between nature and culture and promoting ethical responsibility. In other words, the sublime can help us recognise the relevance of direct experience of nature and the need for a more respectful and sustainable relationship. PubDate: 2024-07-15
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