Full Idea
Exaltation of the Sublime is the struggle to maintain will-less knowing in the face of a threat to the human will. The Sublime contains an awful beauty and a delightful terror because it includes a threat to human existence.
Gist of Idea
The Sublime fights for will-less knowing, when faced with a beautiful threat to humanity
Source
report of Arthur Schopenhauer (The World as Will and Idea [1819], I 201-7) by Peter B. Lewis - Schopenhauer 5
Book Reference
Lewis, Peter B.: 'Schopenhauer' [Reaktion Books 2012], p.116
A Reaction
Can you experience the Sublime when looking down a microscope? Can a mere theory in cosmology be sublime? Can a supposed perception of the Sublime ever be incorrect? We no longer worry about these questions, it seems.
Related Idea
Idea 21924 As the subject of willing I am wretched, but absorption in knowledge is bliss [Schopenhauer]