Single Idea 24087

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

Full Idea

Whoever does not achieve the beautiful seeks the wildly sublime, because there even the ugly can show its 'beauty'. Likewise we seek the wildly sublime morality.

Gist of Idea

People who miss beauty seek the sublime, where even the ugly shows its 'beauty'

Source

Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1881-82 [1882], 11[049])

Book Reference

Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'The Joyful Science, and 1881-82 fragments (v 6)', ed/tr. Del Caro,Adrian [Stanford 2023], p.321


A Reaction

Is the 'we' here Nietzsche, or the herd? The former, I guess, since some the values he likes seem rather ugly to me. He is a fan of war, for example. I'm guessing that massive destruction is sublime but ugly.