Abstract

Explains Kant's idea of a pure aesthetic judgement of the sublime in nature and his division of the sublime into the mathematically and the dynamically sublime. Kant's account of the mathematically sublime contains numerous obscurities, some of which I highlight. I reject his leading idea that the mathematically sublime rests on a so‐called aesthetic estimation of magnitude, one that must inevitably be defeated by the infinity or limitlessness of nature or space. I also reject his accounts of the double‐aspect emotions integral to the mathematically and dynamically sublime and propose alternative accounts.