Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful: Is there a Male Gaze in Empirical Aesthetics?

Abstract

In his ground-breaking Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, Edmund Burke (1757) presented a comprehensive aesthetic theory based on two types of aesthetic appreciation: the beautiful and the sublime. While beauty inspires us with tender feelings of affection, a thrill of delightful horror attracts us to the sublime. According to Burke these ideas originate in a drive for affiliation (beautiful) and a drive for self-preservation (sublime). He also claims that the sublime is generally the more powerful aesthetic experience. A synopsis of literature on gender differences in aesthetic preferences, personality traits, and social motivation suggests, however, that on average women might be less susceptible to the Burkeian sublime than men. We tested this hypothesis empirically using sixty picture details from a triptych by Hieronymus Bosch. One hundred and fifty participants rated these stimuli in terms of threat (respectively safety) and liking. Besides, they completed standardized scales for state and trait anxiety as well as for state and trait depression. We found a strong effect for gender: on average, safety and liking were more closely related for female than for male participants. In the light of these findings we state that Burke’s concepts of the beautiful and the sublime might in fact be confounded with gender-related aesthetic preferences and that his proclivity to the sublime could reflect a male gaze on aesthetics. Finally, we discuss possible indicators for ‘Burke’s fallacy’ in empirical aesthetics today.

Facing the sublime: Physiological correlates of the relationship between fear and the sublime.

“…Such prediction was indeed verified via our positive correlation between ratings of sublimity and fear in both studies, replicating empirical works that presented sublimity as an experience based on fear (e.g. Ortlieb et al, 2016). Thus objects that are often sublime are also likely to be fearful, confirming Burke's view that the source of the sublime is "whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain and danger…or operates in a manner analogous to terror" (p. 39).…”

“…Ishizu & Zeki, 2014;Konečni, 2011), some have on the other hand understood the sublime as an experience of fear-driven delight (e.g. Eskine, Kacinik, & Prinz, 2012;Ortlieb, Fischer, & Carbon, 2016). Given the methodological and conceptual issues within these empirical works, it is premature to determine a clear-eyes perspective of the role of fear in the sublime.…”

Quantifying the if, the when, and the what of the sublime: A survey and latent class analysis of incidence, emotions, and distinct varieties of personal sublime experiences.

“…However, in our reports, fear was very rarely mentioned-both with or without notice of existential safety or control, suggesting support for more positive sublime arguments such as by Kant (1790Kant ( /1986 or Baillie (1747Baillie ( /1967. The idea that the sublime entails an experience of enthrallment and excitement without terror or danger is echoed in observations in the empirical community (Eskine, Kacinik, & Prinz, 2012;Konečni, 2011;Ortlieb, Fischer, & Carbon, 2016).…”

“I like how it looks but it is not beautiful”: Sensory appeal beyond beauty

“…An aesthetic attitude which allows for gaining sensory pleasures could generally refer to each and every object; imagine the shift in perspective when elaborating on aesthetic qualities of a rotten tree. Furthermore, aesthetic responses to art and non-art can involve conflicting emotional contents, "mixed" emotions combining positive and negative responses like when being moved (Menninghaus et al, 2015) or experiencing the shock and delight of an "Awe" experience by a sublime landscape (Konečni, 2005; but see S. Ortlieb, Fischer, & Carbon, 2016). Meanwhile, we argue that aesthetic statements about artworks could be more easily combinable with contrasting evaluative notions than statements about other artefacts because people might consider that the sensory appearance of an artwork can be evaluated along a larger set and pattern of dimensions.…”