Aesthetic Conflict and Contradiction: The Sublime in Kant and Kierkegaard

Samuel Cuff Snow

Published by De Gruyter 2023

Aesthetic Conflict and Contradiction

The Sublime in Kant and Kierkegaard

Samuel Cuff Snow

Volume 151 in the series Quellen und Studien zur Philosophie

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111169996

Overview
Contents

About this book

The central claim of this comparative study of Kant and Kierkegaard is that the aesthetic experience of the sublime is both autonomous and formative for extra-aesthetic ends. Aesthetic autonomy is thus inseparable from aesthetic heteronomy.

In Part I, through an examination of Kant’s Critique of Judgement and his essays on the French Revolution, the Kantian sublime is shown to conflict with our existing cognitive, moral and political frames of meaning, at the same time that the engagement of the aesthetic judge (Chapter 1) or the enthusiastic spectator (Chapter 2) with this conflict furthers our pursuit of cognitive, moral and political ends. The Kantian sublime is built on the autonomy of aesthetic judgement, which nevertheless has non-aesthetic value.

Part II argues that certain aesthetic and ethical-religious figures in Kierkegaard’s work can be shown to be transfigurations of the Kantian sublime, despite the absence of the term. Antigone and the silhouettes from Either/Or embody what I coin the tragic sublime and sublime grief. The God-man in Practice in Christianity is interpreted as a sublime image of contradiction. The figures are submitted to aesthetic representation, while their contradictory interior lives are unrepresentable. The Kierkegaardian sublime is built on a radical critique of aesthetic autonomy, whose failure serves the end of ethico-religious self-formation.

Author / Editor information

Samuel Cuff Snow, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	IX
Notes on Sources and Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	XI
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I Kant’s Aesthetics of the Sublime
Chapter 1 The Conflictual Character of the Kantian Sublime Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
Chapter 2 Enthusiasm: The Politico-Historical Sublime Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	78
Part II Kierkegaard’s Transfigurations of the Sublime
Chapter 3 Aesthetic Figures of the Sublime Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	125
Chapter 4 The Ethico-Religious Sublime: The Image of Contradiction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	155
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	202
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	216
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	229

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Students and scholars in the fields of philosophy, aesthetics, art theory, history of philosophy, libraries, institutes
Pages
- Front matter: 12
- Main content: 229
Keywords: aesthetic autonomy; aesthetic experience; transfiguration; prototype

eBook

Published: October 4, 2023
ISBN: 9783111169996

Hardcover

Published: October 4, 2023
ISBN: 9783111169439