The Sublime

After days and days of discussion in class of various philosophers and their views of the sublime, I have finally come to my own realization of what the sublime is.

For Edmund Burke, it is the "aim of art." He discusses the astonishment that sublimity in art supplies without fear. Kant reiterates this, saying that the sublime "allows us to remain without fear in a state of security." Kant splits the sublime into mathematical and dynamical categories, the first affecting our perception and the other the power we have in relation to that piece of art.

I was unsure about what art piece to use from the field trip, but after rereading the information on Kant and Burke I decided that I needed to write about something from The Evolving Universe exhibit at the Natural History Museum. Those pieces, pictures of our galaxies and galaxies light years away, are art in its most raw and powerful form: the beautiful and sublime universe.