A Philosophical Enquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful

The word “aesthetics” comes from the Ancient Greek word aisthētikós, which means “of sense perception.” Depending on the discipline, aesthetics refers to a wide variety of studies: the understanding of how the brain perceives senses and sensory emotion; a critical study of art and nature; art theory; literary theory; etc. Philosophical studies of aesthetics seek to answer broad questions about the principles of art and beauty: What makes something beautiful? What makes art good? How do people make judgements of art? What determines the meaning and value of art—the artist or the viewer?

Prior to Burke’s exploration of aesthetics, most philosophers adhered to a Platonic understanding of art. Plato asserted that the arts existed to translate higher truths. The physical world was merely a shadow of a more profound truth that could be found within “Ideas” and “Forms.” These ideas persisted until the arrival of the 18th century, when rationalism was applied to all disciplines, including perceptions of art and beauty. The ushering in of the Enlightenment brought a decreased emphasis on goodness and truth, the ideas that had dominated the critique of art for centuries. Suddenly, thinkers were far more interested in that which could be quantified, and Burke’s development of beauty through this lens reflects this cultural shift. Philosophers wanted to know whether art could be viewed objectively and whether elevated art could be quantified by specific markers.

In A Philosophical Enquiry into the Sublime and Beautiful, Burke argues that the mind formulates perceptions of beauty based upon the pleasure it receives from interacting with the work of art. However, the idea of the sublime—a term first introduced by Longinus in the first century CE as the marker of elevated artistic expression—lends an interesting contrast to beauty within the realm of aesthetics. For Burke, who viewed the world through a religious lens, beauty and the sublime represented two parts of nature and, therefore, two parts of God. Burke’s concept of the sublime incorporated emotions like fear, awe, and excitement. The sublime reaches beyond beauty, because it speaks to the darker side of human experience and, according to Burke, God’s nature.

The concept of aesthetics is often conflated with taste, and Burke adhered to this idea. He proposed that taste was a fixed concept that could be developed through education; those who liked lower forms of art were ignorant and had not yet developed their taste. Burke introduced and employed the language of criticism toward beauty and art. He believed that art could and should be studied through its component parts, as these provided a checklist for taste.

Criticism of Burke’s aesthetic philosophy points to Burke’s classicism and Eurocentric point of view as influencing his perceptions of taste. Philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) responded to Burke’s work on aesthetics, claiming that reflective contemplation through aesthetic judgement is key to the appreciation of art. Kant claimed that humans do not just appreciate art through their experiences of pain and pleasure; instead, they reflect upon the work, involving the mind in their assessment.

The philosophy of arts and aesthetics continues to develop. Modern art critic and philosopher Arthur Danto severed art from aesthetics entirely, claiming that all art is a representation of a person’s sociological perspective. Susan Sontag opened the world of art criticism and philosophy to the camp genre and introduced an ethical component to how humans interpret and think about art. American philosopher Kendall Walton introduced the role of the imagination to philosophical discussions. Art criticism and philosophy have always been responsive to the cultural shifts of society. Burke’s views on aesthetics represent a movement toward rationalism and laid the groundwork for the Romantic movement. Modern interpretations of aesthetics are products of their current cultural landscape, and those interpretations will pave the way for innovation and evolution in the discipline.