Kant's theory of the sublime has become one of the most keenly studied elements in both his own aesthetics and aesthetic theory in general. This book offers a sustained analysis of Kant's theory of the sublime as found throughout his critical philosophy but, of course, gives closest and most sustained attention to the Critique of Judgement's ‘Analytic of the Sublime’. More specifically, the book offers first an overview of Kant's general aesthetic theory and then a detailed analysis of the structure of argument in Kant's accounts of the mathematical and dynamical sublime, and the feeling of ‘r ... More

Kant's theory of the sublime has become one of the most keenly studied elements in both his own aesthetics and aesthetic theory in general. This book offers a sustained analysis of Kant's theory of the sublime as found throughout his critical philosophy but, of course, gives closest and most sustained attention to the Critique of Judgement's ‘Analytic of the Sublime’. More specifically, the book offers first an overview of Kant's general aesthetic theory and then a detailed analysis of the structure of argument in Kant's accounts of the mathematical and dynamical sublime, and the feeling of ‘respect’. Various difficulties are identified. The theory is then reconstructed in a more viable form, and extended into the sphere of art by means of the notions of ‘aesthetic idea’ and ‘genius’.