A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful

Abstract

The SECOND EDITION. With an introdu6lory Discourse concerning Taste, and feveral other Additions. riu^: LONDON: Printed for R. and J. Dodsley, in Pall-mall IvlDCCLIXr l^U^LtO^'^j f ICK^, THE PREFACE. /Have endeavoured to make this edition \:fo7tiething more full and fatisfadhry than thefirji. Ihave fought with the utt nofl care^a nd read with, equal attentionê very thing which has appeared in publick againf my opinions ; / have taken advantage of the candid liberty of my friends ; tind if by thefe means I have been better enabled to difcover the imperfediions of the nvorky the indulgence it has received, imp erfeB as tt was, furniJJjed me with a new motive to fpare no reafonable pains for its improvement. Though I have not found fuficient reafon, or what appeared to mefuf fcienty for making any material change in my theory, Ihave found it necejfary in many places to explain, illujlraie and enforce it. I have prefixed an introdudiory difcourfe concerning Tafle ; it is a matter curious in itfelf', and it leads naturally e?20ugh to the A z principal Iv The PREFACE. frincipal enquiry , 7'bis with the other exi)lanations has made the work confiderably.larger y and by increajing its bulk has, Iam afraid added to its faults-, fo that not withflanding all my attention^i t may ftand hi need of a yet greater Jhare of indulgence than it required at itsfirft appearance. T^hey who are accuJio?ned to Jludies of this nature will expect y and they will allow too for many faults,^h ey know that many of the objeBs of our enquiry are in themf elves obfcure and intricate ; and that many others have been render edfo by affedied refinements Grfalfe learning ; they know that there arê nany i?npediments in thefubjediy in the prejudices of others y and even in our own, that render it a matter of no fmall difficulty to Jhew i?i 'a clear light the genuine, face of 7iature, T^hey k?iow that whilft the mind is inte?2t on the general fcheme of thingsf ome particular parts muft be 7iegle5led\ that we mufi often fubmit the fiyle to the mattery ajid frequently give up the praifi of elegance y fatisfied with being clear. "TheThe PREFA CE. v he chara5lers of nature are legibk it is -true ', but they are not plain enough to en-<ihle thofe who runy to read thefn. We miijl make ufe of a cautious^I had almojl faidy a timorous method of proceeding. We muji not attempt to fly y 'Whenwe can fear cely pretend to creep.In confdering any complex mat-tery we ought to examine every diflinB ingredient in the co7npoftiony one by one , and reduce every thing to the utmofl fw.plicity ; fmce the condition of our nature binds us to a ftrici law a?id very fiarrow limits. We ought afterwards to re-examine the principles by the effeB of the compofitiony as well as the compofition by that of the principles.We ought to compare ourfubjeB with thijigs of a fmilar nature y and evefi with things of a contrary nature ; for difcoveries 7nay bcy and often are made by the contrafly which woud efcape us on the fngle view, 'the greater number of thefe comparifons we makey the mor...

Tourism, Aesthetics, and Touristic Judgment

“…Burke (1757Burke ( /2009), like his contemporaries of the 18th century, thought of beauty as a "feeling in the mind caused by certain properties in external objects" (Hipple, 1957, p. 84). Kant (1790, cited in Brady, 2003, the first philosopher to offer a "sophisticated theory of aesthetics," characterized "beauty as the appreciation of something through an immediate encounter between appreciator and a particular object" (pp.…”

A Historical and Systematic Survey of European Perceptions of Wilderness

“…Edmund Burke (1729Burke ( -1797, an early representative of classical English conservatism, interpreted the experience of the natural sublime in a novel way (Burke, 1757). In so doing, he laid the ground for new positive perceptions of wilderness (Kirchhoff and Trepl, 2009: 47).…”

Introduction: The Sublime and Seventeenth-Century Netherlandish Art

“…He sees it as a violent experience of the inner sense that destabilizes human subjectivity, while at the same time it makes us overcome the fear it evokes in us. 3 Jean-François Lyotard in his reinterpretation of the Kantian sublime calls it a decisively modern mode of sensibility that signals the limits of representation and shaped modernist avant-garde art in its move away from the beautiful toward a general feeling of the unsettling. 4 Looking at seventeenth-century Netherlandish art from the perspective of the sublime sketched above seems at least a bit odd.…”