Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T15:30:58.607Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
Series:   Elements in the Philosophy of Immanuel Kant

The Sublime

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 July 2018

Melissa McBay Merritt
Melissa McBay Merritt
Affiliation:
University of New South Wales, Sydney

Summary

This Element considers Kant's account of the sublime in the context of his predecessors both in the Anglophone and German rationalist traditions. Since Kant says with evident endorsement that 'we call sublime that which is absolutely great' (Critique of the Power of Judgment, 5:248) and nothing in nature can in fact be absolutely great (it can only figure as such, in certain presentations), Kant concludes that strictly speaking what is sublime can only be the human calling (Bestimmung) to perfect our rational capacity according to the standard of virtue that is thought through the moral law. The Element takes account of the difference between respect and admiration as the two main varieties of sublime feeling, and concludes by considering the role of Stoicism in Kant's account of the sublime, particularly through the channel of Seneca.
Get access

Keywords

sublimeKant’s aestheticsaesthetic judgementrespectKantian moral psychologyMoses MendelssohnSeneca
Type
Element
Information
Series: Elements in the Philosophy of Immanuel Kant
Online ISBN: 9781108529709
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication: 05 July 2018

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Primary Sources

Ashfield, A. & de Bolla, P., eds. (1996). The Sublime: A Reader in British Eighteenth-century Aesthetic Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Baumgarten, A. G. (2007 [1750]). Aesthetica/Ästhetik, Latin-German edition. Trans. Dagmar Mirbach. Hamburg: Felix Meiner.Google Scholar
Bond, D. F., ed. (1965). The Spectator. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Burke, E. (1990 [1757]). A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. Ed. Phillips, Adam. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Carter, E. (1817). Letters from Mrs. Elizabeth Carter to Mrs. Montagu, Between the Years 1755 and 1800, Chiefly upon Literary and Moral Subjects. Ed. Rev. Pennington, Montagu. Volume 1. London: F. C. and J. Rivington.Google Scholar
Dennis, J. (1693). Miscellanies in Verse and Prose. London: James Knapton.Google Scholar
Gerard, A. (1759). Essay on Taste: with Three Dissertations on the Same Subject by Mr. De Voltaire, Mr. D’Alembert, and Mr. De Montesquieu. London and Edinburgh: A. Millar, A. Kincaid, and J. Bell.Google Scholar
Herder, J. G. (1998). Werke. Volume 8, Schriften zu Literatur und Philosophie 1792–1800. Frankfurt: Deutscher Klassiker Verlag.Google Scholar
Kames, (Henry Home) (2005 [1785]). Elements of Criticism, sixth edition. Ed. Jones, Peter, 2 vols. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.Google Scholar
Long, A. A. & Sedley, D. N. (1987). The Hellenistic Philosophers, 2 volumes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Longinus, (1995). On the Sublime [ΠΕΡΙ ΥΨΟΥΣ]. Trans. W. H. Fyfe, revised by Donald Russell. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Meier, G. F. (1757). Betrachtungen über den ersten Grundsatz aller schönen Künste und Wissenschaften. Halle: Carl Hermann Hemmerde.Google Scholar
Mendelssohn, M. (1929–). Gesammelte Schriften: Jubiläumsausgabe. Stuttgart/Bad Cannstatt: Frommann/Holzboog.Google Scholar
Mendelssohn, M. (1997 [1761]). Philosophical Writings. Trans. Daniel O. Dahlstrom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pope, A. (2016). An Essay on Man. Ed. Jones, Tom. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Reid, T. (1969 [1785]). Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Seneca, L. A. (1917 and 1925). Epistles. 2 vols. Trans. Richard M. Gummere. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Seneca, L. A. (1928, 1932, and 1935). Moral Essays. 3 vols. Trans. John W. Basore. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Seneca, L. A. (2010). Anger, Mercy, Revenge. Trans. Robert A. Kaster and Martha C. Nussbaum. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Seneca, L. A. (2014). Hardship and Happiness. Trans. Elaine Fantham, Harry M. Hine, James Ker, and Gareth D. Williams. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Seneca, L. A. (2015). Letters on Ethics to Lucilius. Trans. Margaret Graver and A. A. Long. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar

Secondary Sources

Ashfield, A. & de Bolla, P., eds. (1996). The Sublime: A Reader in British Eighteenth-century Aesthetic Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Baumgarten, A. G. (2007 [1750]). Aesthetica/Ästhetik, Latin-German edition. Trans. Dagmar Mirbach. Hamburg: Felix Meiner.Google Scholar
Bond, D. F., ed. (1965). The Spectator. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Burke, E. (1990 [1757]). A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. Ed. Phillips, Adam. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Carter, E. (1817). Letters from Mrs. Elizabeth Carter to Mrs. Montagu, Between the Years 1755 and 1800, Chiefly upon Literary and Moral Subjects. Ed. Rev. Pennington, Montagu. Volume 1. London: F. C. and J. Rivington.Google Scholar
Dennis, J. (1693). Miscellanies in Verse and Prose. London: James Knapton.Google Scholar
Gerard, A. (1759). Essay on Taste: with Three Dissertations on the Same Subject by Mr. De Voltaire, Mr. D’Alembert, and Mr. De Montesquieu. London and Edinburgh: A. Millar, A. Kincaid, and J. Bell.Google Scholar
Herder, J. G. (1998). Werke. Volume 8, Schriften zu Literatur und Philosophie 1792–1800. Frankfurt: Deutscher Klassiker Verlag.Google Scholar
Kames, (Henry Home) (2005 [1785]). Elements of Criticism, sixth edition. Ed. Jones, Peter, 2 vols. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.Google Scholar
Long, A. A. & Sedley, D. N. (1987). The Hellenistic Philosophers, 2 volumes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Longinus, (1995). On the Sublime [ΠΕΡΙ ΥΨΟΥΣ]. Trans. W. H. Fyfe, revised by Donald Russell. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Meier, G. F. (1757). Betrachtungen über den ersten Grundsatz aller schönen Künste und Wissenschaften. Halle: Carl Hermann Hemmerde.Google Scholar
Mendelssohn, M. (1929–). Gesammelte Schriften: Jubiläumsausgabe. Stuttgart/Bad Cannstatt: Frommann/Holzboog.Google Scholar
Mendelssohn, M. (1997 [1761]). Philosophical Writings. Trans. Daniel O. Dahlstrom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pope, A. (2016). An Essay on Man. Ed. Jones, Tom. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Reid, T. (1969 [1785]). Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Seneca, L. A. (1917 and 1925). Epistles. 2 vols. Trans. Richard M. Gummere. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Seneca, L. A. (1928, 1932, and 1935). Moral Essays. 3 vols. Trans. John W. Basore. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Seneca, L. A. (2010). Anger, Mercy, Revenge. Trans. Robert A. Kaster and Martha C. Nussbaum. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Seneca, L. A. (2014). Hardship and Happiness. Trans. Elaine Fantham, Harry M. Hine, James Ker, and Gareth D. Williams. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Seneca, L. A. (2015). Letters on Ethics to Lucilius. Trans. Margaret Graver and A. A. Long. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Allison, H. (2001). Kant’s Theory of Taste. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Beiser, F. C. (2009). Diotima’s Children: German Aesthetic Rationalism from Leibniz to Lessing. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Brady, E. (2013). The Sublime in Modern Philosophy: Aesthetics, Ethics, and Nature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Brandt, R. (2003). The Vocation of the Human Being. In Jacobs, B. and Kain, P., eds., Essays on Kant’s Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 85–104.Google Scholar
Brennan, T. (2003). Stoic Moral Psychology. In Inwood, B., ed., Cambridge Companion to the Stoics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 257–94.Google Scholar
Budick, S. (2010). Kant and Milton. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Budd, M. (2002). The Aesthetic Appreciation of Nature. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Budd, M. (2008). Aesthetic Essays. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Clewis, R. (2009). The Kantian Sublime and the Revelation of Freedom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cochrane, T. (2012). The Emotional Experience of the Sublime. Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 42 (2), 125–48.Google Scholar
Crowther, P. (1989). The Kantian Sublime. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Darwall, S. (1977). Two Kinds of Respect. Ethics 88 (1), 36–49.Google Scholar
Darwall, S. (2008). Kant on Respect, Dignity, and the Duty of Respect. In Betzler, M., ed., Kant’s Ethics of Virtue. Berlin: de Gruyter, pp. 175–200.Google Scholar
di Giovanni, G. (2011). The Year 1786 and Die Bestimmung des Menschen. In Munk, R., ed., Moses Mendelssohn’s Metaphysics and Aesthetics. Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 217–34.Google Scholar
Doran, R. (2015). The Theory of the Sublime from Longinus to Kant. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Forsey, J. (2007). Is a Theory of the Sublime Possible? Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 85 (4), 381–9.Google Scholar
Graver, M. (2016). Anatomies of Joy: Seneca and the Gaudium Tradition. In Caston, R. R. and Kaster, R. A., eds., Hope, Joy, and Affection in the Classical World. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 123–42.Google Scholar
Guyer, P. (1993). Kant and the Experience of Freedom: Essays on Aesthetics and Morality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Guyer, P. (2005). The Symbols of Freedom in Kant’s Aesthetics. In Values of Beauty: Historical Essays in Aesthetics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 222–41.Google Scholar
Guyer, P. (2014). A History of Modern Aesthetics. Volume 1: The Eighteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kennett, J. (2015). What is Required for Motivation by Principle? In Björnsson, G., Strandberg, C., Olinder, R. F., Eriksson, J., Björklund, F. B., eds., Motivational Internalism. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 108–29.Google Scholar
Koller, A. (2011). Mendelssohn’s Response to Burke on the Sublime. In Munk, R., ed., Moses Mendelssohn’s Metaphysics and Aesthetics. Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 329–50.Google Scholar
Kuehn, M. (2009). Reason as a Species Characteristic. In Rorty, A. and Schmidt, J., eds., Kant’s Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Aim: A Critical Guide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 68–93.Google Scholar
Lewis, C. T. & Short, C. (1879). A Latin Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Lyotard, J.-F. (1994). Lessons on the Analytic of the Sublime. Trans. E. Rottenberg. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
McDowell, J. (1979). Virtue and Reason. The Monist 62 (3), 331–50.Google Scholar
Merritt, M. (2011). Kant on Enlightened Moral Pedagogy. Southern Journal of Philosophy 49 (3), 227–53.Google Scholar
Merritt, M. (2012). The Moral Source of the Kantian Sublime. In Costelloe, T., ed., The Sublime: from Antiquity to the Present. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 37–49.Google Scholar
Merritt, M. (2017). Sublimity and Joy: Kant on the Aesthetic Constitution of Virtue. In Altman, M., ed., Palgrave Kant Handbook. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 447–67.Google Scholar
Merritt, M. (2018). Kant on Reflection and Virtue. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Monk, S. H. (1960). The Sublime. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Murdoch, I. (1999 [1959]). The Sublime and the Beautiful Revisited. In Conradi, P., ed., Existentialists and Mystics: Writings on Philosophy and Literature. New York: Penguin.Google Scholar
Rayman, J. (2012). Kant on Sublimity and Morality. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.Google Scholar
Reath, A. (1989). Kant’s Theory of Moral Sensibility. Kant Studien 80 (1–4), 284–302.Google Scholar
Santozki, U. (2012). Die Bedeutung antiker Theorien für die Genese und Systematik von Kants Philosophie. Berlin: de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Schaper, E. (1992). Taste, Sublimity, and Genius: The Aesthetics of Nature and Art. In Guyer, P., ed., The Cambridge Companion to Kant. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 367–93.Google Scholar
Sherman, N. (1997). Making a Necessity of Virtue: Aristotle and Kant on Virtue. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Vogt, K. M. (2008). Law, Reason, and the Cosmic City: Political Philosophy in the Early Stoa. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Warda, A. (1922). Immanuel Kants Bücher. Berlin: Martin Breslauer.Google Scholar
Zuckert, R. (2003). Awe or Envy: Herder contra Kant on the Sublime. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 61 (3), 217–32.Google Scholar

Save element to Kindle

To save this element to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

The Sublime
Available formats
×

Save element to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

The Sublime
Available formats
×

Save element to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

The Sublime
Available formats
×