return to list of latest ideas

Single Idea 24175

[catalogued under 21. Aesthetics / A. Aesthetic Experience / 6. The Sublime]

Full Idea

Egoistic accounts of the sublime allow that our fragility is revealed, but also claim we feel something positive about ourselves. Non-egoistic accounts question whether the self-negation is so terrible after all.

Gist of Idea

Accounts of sublimity differ over whether we learn something good about ourselves

Source

Tom Cochrane (The Aesthetic Value of the World [2021], 3.2)

A Reaction

[compressed] I think I favour the non-egoistic approach. It is like the thrill of seeing a great performance in the arts or sport. It humbles me - but also I feel part of something greater than me. Like a child on the winning side in a war.

Book Reference

Cochrane,Tom: 'The Aesthetic Value of the World' [OUP 2021], p.58