Mabel Garcia Prof: Daniel Guernsey
History of Aesthetic Thought in Europe Paper#1 Edmund Burke: Enquiry on the Sublime & the Beautiful
Edmund Burke is mainly known for his “Reflections on the Revolution”, a critique on the French Revolution, which illustrates the reception of his second best known theoretical work, “A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas on the Sublime and the Beautiful”. This Enquiry was an important milestone in the theory of aesthetics because of it subjects being: taste, beauty, the concept of the sublime, and the way in which empirical perceptions affect our mind. The first to comment on the sublime was the philosopher Longinus, he defined it as “Something that elevated the soul into an ecstasy, so that the soul participated in the splendors of the divinity” (Wilton, 1980) Burke redefines this idea of the sublime in his own way; he describes it as things of extensive magnitude. He was the first philosopher to argue that the “Sublime and the Beautiful are mutually exclusive” (victorianweb), he viewed them as incompatible things that could even be in conflict with each other, and his was the first complete philosophical exposition for separating the Beautiful and the Sublime into their own respective rational categories. The Beautiful according to Burke is well-formed and aesthetically pleasing, whereas the Sublime has the power to compel and destroy us, he compared the juxtaposition between them to that of night and day; night being the Sublime and day being the Beautiful. Beauty may be accentuated by light, but either intense light or darkness (the absence of light) is sublime to the degree that it can obliterate the sight of an object. The imagination is moved to awe and instilled with a degree of horror by what is dark, uncertain, and confused. Another philosopher to expand and write on the Beautiful and the Sublime was Immanuel Kant, on his “Observations on The Feeling of the Beautiful and the Sublime” he held the sublime as noble, splendid, or terrifying. Also in his “Critique of Judgment” he distinguishes between the “remarkable differences” of the Beautiful and the Sublime, noting that beauty “is connected with the form of the object”, while the sublime “is to be found in a formless object represented by a boundlessness” (Kant, 1951) Since the subjects of taste, the sublime, and the beautiful are so personal, we can ask ourselves if we recognize the feelings and principles that Burke describes. According to Burke it is possible to discover certain standards or principles of taste, by this he means that taste works the same way in all of us. The goal of his Enquiry is to investigate on the basis of which principles our minds are affected. According to Burke, difference in taste exists because of “a difference in experience, natural sensibility, or attention” (Burke, 1756). To Burke, taste is not a separated faculty, but something that is connected with the rest of our mind. To understand more deeply how Burke differentiates the aesthetics experiences of the Sublime and the Beautiful, we must first look at his fundamental distinction between pleasure and pain. Burke describes them as simple and positive states of mind. They are positive because 1
you do not have to go through pleasure in order to be in pain, and vice versa. There is a basic state of mind, which is indifference, and from that position you can experience either pleasure or pain. He connects this with another distinction in classes of passions, all ideas that produce passions in our bodies can be headed under either passions that concern self-preservation, or passions that concern society. The passions which concern self-preservation are based upon the ideas of pain, danger, fear, death, sickness, and horror versus the passions concerning with society such as love and lust.
“Most of the ideas which are capable of making a powerful impression on the mind, whether simply of Pain or Pleasure, or of the modifications of those, may be reduced very nearly to these two heads, self-preservation and society; to the ends of one or the other of which all our passions are calculated to answer. The passions which concern self-preservation turn mostly on pain or danger. The ideas of pain, sickness, and death, fill the mind with strong emotions of horror; but life and health, though they put us in a capacity of being affected with pleasure, they make no such impression by the simple enjoyment. The passions therefore which are conversant about the preservation of the individual, turn chiefly on pain and danger, and they are the most powerful of all the passions.” (Burke, 1756)
So according to Burke, the passions which concern self-preservation turn on pain, and the passions which concern society turn on pleasure. And since the Sublime and the Beautiful fundamentally run in experience, the experience of the beautiful is bounded in society because it is a socially constructed thing bound to physical experience, whereas the sublime is linked to self-preservation.
“The passions which belong to self-preservation, turn on pain and danger; they are simply painful when their causes immediately affect us; they are delightful when we have an idea of pain and danger, without being actually in such circumstances; this delight I have not called pleasure, because it turns on pain, and because it is different enough from any idea of positive pleasure. Whatever excites this delight, I call sublime. The passions belonging to selfpreservation are the strongest of all the passions.” (Burke, 1756)
As stated earlier, pain forms the basis for the class of passions that concern selfpreservation, therefore, everything that is capable of evoking this kind of passions, is capable of producing the sublime. “Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain, and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling”. (Burke, 1756). Burke gives us the notion that the passions based on pain are more powerful than those based on pleasure, and that things that are able to produce the sublime can also produce delight, “The sublime may inspire 2
horror, but one receives pleasure in knowing that the perception is a fiction” (Beardsley, 1973) He gives this notion to explain why we sometimes we seek the Sublime, instead of the Beautiful. The preference for the Sublime over the Beautiful also marked the transaction from the Neoclassical to the Romantic era.
“I say the strongest emotion, because I am satisfied the ideas of pain are much more powerful than those which enter on the part of pleasure. Without all doubt, the torments which we may be made to suffer are much greater in their effect on the body and mind, than any pleasures which the most learned voluptuary could suggest, or than the liveliest imagination, and the most sound and exquisitely sensible body could enjoy.” (Burke, 1756). “When danger or pain press too nearly, they are incapable of giving any delight, and are simply terrible; but at certain distances, and with certain modifications, they may be, and they are delightful, as we every day experience.” (Burke, 1756)
When it comes to society, the other head in which Burke classes our passions, he divides it into two sorts “The society of the sexes, which answers the purposes of propagation. The passion belonging to this is called love, and it contains a mixture of lust; its object is the beauty of women” (Burke, 1756). In contrast to feelings of danger and fear, the society of the sexes is mainly based upon love and lust (characteristics of the Beautiful), while the general society consists of a more complicated set of passions based upon sympathy, solitude, or ambition. “The next, is that of more general society, which we have with men and with other animals, and which we may in some sort be said to have even with the inanimate world.” (Burke, 1756) “The passion subservient to this is called likewise love, but it has no mixture of lust, and its object is beauty; which is a name I shall apply to all such qualities in things as induce in us a sense of affection and tenderness, or some other passion the most nearly resembling these.” (Burke, 1756)
“But man, who is a creature adapted to a greater variety and intricacy of relation, connects with the general passion, the idea of some social qualities, which direct and heighten the appetite which he has in common With all other animals; and as he is not designed like them to live at large, it is fit that he should have something to create a preference, and fix his choice; and this in general should be some sensible quality; as no other can so quickly, so powerfully, or so surely produce its effect. The object therefore of this mixed passion which we call love, is the beauty of the sex.” (Burke, 1756) “Good company, lively conversations, and the endearments of friendship, fill the mind with great pleasure; a temporary solitude on the other hand, is itself agreeable. This may perhaps prove, that we are creatures designed for contemplation as well as action; since solitude as well as society has its pleasures; as from the former observation we may discern, that an entire life of solitude contradicts the purposes of our being, since death itself is scarcely an idea of more terror.” (Burke, 1756) 3
Now that we have a clearer understanding of the role that self-preservation and society play in Burke’s formulation of the Sublime and the Beautiful, we can better understand his description of each. When it comes to the Sublime, Burke defines it with passions such as astonishment, admiration, its infinity, the contrast of light & dark which heightens its emotional power, awe, terror, etc. But he emphasizes one main passion which is the effect of the Sublime in its highest degree: astonishment.
“The passion caused by the great and sublime in nature, when those causes operate most powerfully, is Astonishment; and astonishment is that state of the soul, in which all its motions are suspended, with some degree of horror. In this case the mind is so entirely filled with its object, that it cannot entertain any other, nor by consequence reason on that object which employs it. Hence arises the great power of the sublime, that far from being produced by them, it anticipates our reasoning, and hurries us on by an irresistible force. Astonishment, as I have said, is the effect of the sublime in its highest degree; the inferior effects are admiration, reverence and respect”. (Burke, 1756)
So in accordance to Burke, when something is sublime it has the capability to evoke all of these passions (astonishment, admiration, reverence, respect, etc.), and in its fullest the sublime produces a mixture of great astonishment with a degree of fear, especially the fear of death, which completely fills our mind not allowing any other possible emotion, which is why as I mentioned before, the Sublime produces the most powerful emotion because it has the ability to occupy our minds completely. Since fear is the dominant principle in raising the Sublime, Burke focuses on the things that scare us and distort our reason, things like terror, obscurity (which consists of only darkness), unfamiliarity, unclearness, etc. He gives us an example when he mentions that any animal, even if it is not large, can raise ideas of the Sublime and has the ability to produce fear since they are objects of terror, he specifically refers to serpents and poisonous animals of any kind. He also makes reference to things of great dimensions and certain infinity, like the ocean, which he describes as “an object of no small terror”
“No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear. For fear being an apprehension of pain or death, it operates in a manner that resembles actual pain. Whatever therefore is terrible, with regard to sight, is sublime too, whether this cause of terror, be endued with greatness of dimensions or not; for it is impossible to look on anything as trifling, or contemptible, that may be dangerous” (Burke, 1756)
Furthermore, Burke goes into explaining his concept of obscurity in regards to the Sublime. He considers night, or darkness itself, to be fundamental in adding to the dread in cases of danger or fear. “To make anything very terrible, obscurity seems in general to be necessary” (Burke, 1756). He points out that “almost all the heathen temples were dark” and most 4
ceremonies were performed during the night in the darkest parts of forests or cemeteries. He also quotes Milton and defines his description of Death as “dark, uncertain, confused, terrible, and sublime to the last degree.” (Burke, 1756). In paintings, an obscure subject makes it more intriguing, because when we are unfamiliar with something, it raises our admiration and excites our passions. When it comes to vastness, Burke considers greatness of dimension “a powerful cause of the Sublime”, the reason why is because as established earlier, something incomprehensible is capable of evoking the Sublime, whereas something that is completely clear cannot, therefore, something big is more likely to be incomprehensible and more suited to the Sublime. The vastness and infinity of oceans is frightening to us, which makes sea-pieces more linked to the Sublime, an example being J.M.W Turner’s “Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps” because of its larger than life waves and even the dark use of colors evoke every sense of the Sublime, such as astonishment, wonderment, awe, terror, emotion, etc. John Martin’s “The Bard” is also an example of the Sublime, again giving us the feeling of astonishment and awe, “making us fell small in its infinite greatness”. Aside from the subject, Burke tells us that the medium chosen by the artist can also be a cause for sublimity, he states that “greatness, in depth, length and height, will produce the sublime in us” (Burke, 1756), and that the larger the painting, the bigger the effect it will have on the audience, therefore it is more likely to be Sublime. He also makes a reference to the colors, and though dark, sad colors are representational of the Sublime, Burke posts an exception when it comes to light under certain conditions.
“Mere light is too common a thing to make a strong impression on the mind, and without a strong impression nothing can be sublime. But such a light as that of the sun, immediately exerted on the eye, as it over powers the sense, is a very great idea. Light of an inferior strength to this, if it moves with great celerity, has the same power; for lightning is certainly productive of grandeur, which it owes chiefly to the extreme velocity of its motion.” (Burke, 1756)
In concluding with the Sublime, we can say it has a casual structure that is unlike that of beauty. Its formal cause is thus the passion of fear, the material cause is equally aspects of certain objects such as vastness, infinity, magnificence, etc.; its efficient cause is the tension of our nerves; and its final cause is God having created and battled Satan, as expressed in Milton's great epic Paradise Lost. The polarity that Burke made between the passions based on self-preservation and society, is extended further when he contrasts his notion of the sublime with the concept of beauty. To Burke, the beautiful is well-formed and aesthetically pleasing, and it is the quality in things that causes love. What is most peculiar and original to Burke's view of beauty is that it cannot be understood by the traditional bases of beauty: proportion, fitness, or perfection.
“By beauty I mean, that quality or those qualities in bodies by which they cause love, or some passion similar to it.” (Burke, 1756) 5
“Beauty, and the passion caused by beauty, which I call love, is different from desire, though desire may sometimes operate along with it; but it is to this latter that we must attribute those violent and tempestuous passions, and the consequent emotions of the body which attend what is called love in some of its ordinary acceptations, and not to the effects of beauty merely as it is such.” (Burke, 1756)
In the Enquiry, Burke restricts the concept of beauty to things that are perceptible with our senses. So to Burke love means a satisfaction that arises by the contemplation of something beautiful. He describes his concept as an affection and in doing this, he rejects those earlier notions of beauty and divorces the beautiful from the rational. The first concept he rejects is that of proportion, he thought that the concept that beauty consisted of the layout or arrangement of parts was too indirect. Proportions are relative and require comparison with other things; therefore it would require reasoning and does not work directly on our senses and imagination, which goes against Burke’s notion that if we see something beautiful, we do not take any time to reason about the beauty of the thing, but we instantly experience the beauty, if we wouldn’t then nothing would be left for the imagination or judgment. For these same reasons Burke rejects the notions of beauty as fitness and perfection, because like proportion they do not produce love.
“It is no creature of our reason, since it strikes us without any reference to use, and even where no use at all can be discerned, since the order and method ·of nature is generally very different from our measures and proportions, we must conclude that beauty is, for the greater part, some quality in bodies, acting· mechanically upon the human mind by the intervention of the senses. We ought therefore to consider attentively in u what manner those sensible qualities are disposed, in such things as by experience we find beautiful, or which excite in us the passion of love, or some correspondent affection.” (Burke, 1756)
What Burke does describe as the formal causes of beauty are the passion of love; the material cause that concerns aspects of certain objects such as smallness, smoothness, delicacy, etc; the efficient cause which is the calming of our nerves, and the final cause which is God's providence. According to Burke beauty is found in things that are small, soft, curved and brightly colored because small things produce love in us, to emphasize this, he uses language because of the fact that we use diminutives to represent things or people we love.
“I am told that in most languages, the objects of love are spoken of under diminutive epithets.” (Burke, 1756). “Anciently in the English language the diminishing ling was added to the names of persons and things that were the objects of love. Some we retain still, as darling, (or little dear) and a few others. But to this day in ordinary conversation, it is usual to add the endearing name of little to 6
everything we love; the French and Italians make use of these affectionate diminutives even more than we.” (Burke, 1756)
Another aspect of the material cause is softness or smoothness; Softness is indispensable for beauty, whereas hardness, sharpness and angles are ugly. When referring to smoothness, Burke uses nature and women’s curves as an example of something that is often regarded as beautiful and delicate.
“A quality so essential to beauty, that I do not now recollect anything beautiful that is not smooth. In trees and flowers, smooth leaves are beautiful; smooth slopes of earth in gardens; smooth streams in the landscape; smooth coats of birds and beasts in animal beauties; in fine women, smooth skins; and in several sorts of ornamental furniture, smooth and polished surfaces.” (Burke, 1756) “For take any beautiful object, and give it a broken and rugged surface, and however well formed it may be in other respects, it pleases no longer. Whereas let it want ever so many of the other constituents, if it wants not this, it becomes more pleasing than almost all the others without it.” (Burke, 1756)
In addition, Burke says that Beauty consists in bright, delicate and light things that are a pleasure to our eyes, in contrast to the Sublime which is produced by things that are great, rough, angled, vast, massive and dark. He provides us with some guidelines in regards to colors when it comes to the Beautiful; he says they must not be “dusky or muddy” (as the ones pertaining to the Sublime), but clean and bright. He states that soft, light, or weak colors are more representational to that which is Beautiful. Finally he says that if the colors a vivid they must be placed in such a variety in which it is impossible to determine or “choose” one above the other, “as in variegated flowers” (Burke, 1756). Burke gives us his conclusion on his notion of the beautiful by overstating the qualities produced by the Beautiful and the standards in which beauty should operate.
“On the whole, the qualities of beauty, as they are merely sensible qualities, are the following. First, to be comparatively small. Secondly, to be smooth. Thirdly, to have a variety in the direction of the parts; but fourthly, to have those parts not angular, but melted as it were into each other. Fifthly, to be of a delicate frame, without any remarkable appearance of strength. Sixthly, to have its colors clear and bright; but not very strong and glaring. Seventhly, or if it should have any glaring color, to have it diversified with others. These are, I believe, the properties on which beauty depends; properties that operate by nature, and are less liable to be altered by caprice, or confounded by a diversity of tastes, than any others.” (Burke, 1756)
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An example of what the notion of the Beautiful is, according to Burke, is James Berry’s “Distributions of the Premiums at the Society of Arts”, a painting in which Burke himself appears, it’s classical subject linked with society has all the characteristics of what Burke would consider Beautiful (smoothness, delicacy, etc.). To conclude his Enquiry on the Sublime and the Beautiful, Burke compares and contrasts both of the notions and describes them as “indeed ideas of a very different nature, one being founded on pain, the other on pleasure;” They are so juxtaposed to him that he states that it is impossible for them to exist in one object, and if there was ever a case of so, they would diminish the effects of one another. Burke uses a comparison between the colors black, which can be mixed, but the more black we add to the white the darker it will become, and vice versa.
“Black and white may soften, may blend, but they are not therefore the same. Nor when they are so softened and blended with each other, or with different colors, is the power of black as black, or of white as white” (Burke, 1756) “For sublime objects are vast in their dimensions, beautiful ones comparatively small; beauty should be smooth, and polished; the great, rugged and negligent; beauty should shun the right line, yet deviate from it insensibly; the great in many cases loves the right line, and when it deviates, it often makes a strong deviation; beauty should not be obscure; the great ought to be dark and gloomy; beauty should be light and delicate; the great ought to be solid, and even massive.” (Burke, 1756)
Works Cited Beardsley, M. C. (1973). History of Aesthetics . 8
Burke, E. (1756). A philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas on the Sublime and the Beautiful. Intro and notes by James T. Boulton. Kant, I. (1951). The Critique of Jugement . Trans. J.H. Bernard. victorianweb. (n.d.). Retrieved from Edmund Burke's On the Sublime: http://www.victorianweb.org/philosophy/sublime/burke.html Wilton, A. (1980). Turner and the Sublime . British Museum of Publications , 10.
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