Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T06:47:22.611Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Kant’s Deduction of the Sublime

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 August 2018

Thomas Moore*
Affiliation:
Brown University

Abstract

In the third Critique, Kant collapses his deduction of the universal validity of judgements of sublimity into his exposition of such judgements, a decision called into question by commentators. I defend Kant on this score, explaining how the exposition of judgements of sublimity serves as their deduction. Kant’s key move is his claim that natural objects are not, strictly speaking, sublime. I argue that ideas of reason, on Kant’s view, are the only truly sublime objects and show how this allows him to establish that the imaginations of all observers operate in the same way in experiences of sublimity.

Type
Articles
Copyright
© Kantian Review 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

Abaci, Uygar (2008) ‘Kant’s Justified Dismissal of Artistic Sublimity’. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 66 (3), 237251.Google Scholar
Abaci, Uygar (2010) ‘Artistic Sublime Revisited: Reply to Robert Clewis’. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 68 (2), 170173.Google Scholar
Allison, Henry (2001) Kant’s Theory of Taste. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Brady, Emily (2012) ‘Reassessing Aesthetic Appreciation of Nature in the Kantian Sublime’. Journal of Aesthetic Education, 46 (1), 91109.Google Scholar
Brady, Emily (2013) The Sublime in Modern Philosophy: Aesthetics, Ethics, and Nature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Clewis, Robert R. (2009) The Kantian Sublime and the Revelation of Freedom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Clewis, Robert R. (2010) ‘A Case for Artistic Kantian Sublimity: A Response to Abaci’. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 68 (2), 167170.Google Scholar
Crowther, Paul (1989) The Kantian Sublime: From Morality to Art. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Forsey, Jane (2007) ‘Is a Theory of the Sublime Possible?’. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 65 (4), 381389.Google Scholar
Guyer, Paul (1979) Kant and the Claims of Taste. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Guyer, Paul (2005) Values of Beauty: Historical Essays in Aesthetics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel (1997) Practical Philosophy. Trans. Mary Gregor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel (1998) Critique of Pure Reason. Trans. Paul Guyer and Allen Wood. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel (2000) Critique of the Power of Judgment. Trans. Paul Guyer and Eric Matthews, ed. Paul Guyer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sircello, Guy (1993) ‘How is a Theory of the Sublime Possible?’. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 51 (4), 541550.Google Scholar
Westphal, Kenneth (1998) ‘Kant on the Sublime’. In Michael Kelly (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, vol. 3 (Oxford: Oxford University Press), pp. 3741.Google Scholar