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

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

A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful is philosopher Edmund Burke's short examination of human passions - what they are, and what excites them. Specifically, Burke focuses his study on two elusive concepts, the Sublime and the Beautiful.

Taste is first examined by Burke, defined as the faculty that makes judgments upon art and "works of imagination." Taste is determined by the Senses, the Imagination, and by own's own Reasoning or Judgment, working in concert. Taste is universal and Man only differs in it by degree mostly.

Next to be examined are pain and pleasure. These, along with the lack of either, indifference, are the basic states of being. They are both substantive, "positive" passions and are not simply defined as the lack of the other. Important are passions directed towards self-preservation, of which pain and its ally danger are the strongest. On... View more of the A Philosophical Enquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful Summary