A Philosophical Enquiry into the Subl..., Edmund Burke
A Philosophical Enquiry into the Subl..., Edmund Burke
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A Philosophical Enquiry into the Sublime and Beautiful

Author: Edmund Burke

Narrator: Matt Addis

Abridged: 5 hr 52 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/01/2020

Synopsis

In A Philosophical Enquiry... Edmund Burke sets out to define the nature of beauty and sublimity, and establish an objective criterion for discussing aesthetics. His definition of beauty as rooted in pleasure and sexuality, and the sublime in pain and survival, aligned him with the empiricists John Locke and David Hume, as he replaced the metaphysics of Plato's aesthetics with a psychological and physiological perspective. According to Burke, the sublime and the beautiful are experiences that can be explained by biological and sensual factors; thus he proceeds to explain how smooth lines, sweet tastes and middle frequencies of sound can be considered beautiful, and the terror created by high mountains and dark forests can be sublime. These revolutionary ideas ushered in the age of Romanticism, and the Gothic genre of novels, with their delight in horror and fright, and continue to influence aesthetic theories today.

About Edmund Burke

Edmund Burke (1729–1797) became a member of Parliament in 1765. He championed the unpopular cause of Catholic emancipation and a great part of his career became dedicated to the problem of India. The French Revolution prompted one of his best-known works, Reflections on the Revolution in France.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Bill on January 27, 2020

An interesting early essay by the father of modern conservatism on the sublime and beautiful and how they differ. Thoughtful and occasionally entertaining. The 18th century prose--like most 18th century prose--is excellent.......more

Goodreads review by The Literary on June 02, 2015

An elegant work that expresses in words feelings and emotions that you knew but could never quite articulate.......more

Goodreads review by John on September 08, 2011

I didn’t completely agree with the ideas in this booke, but I rate it five stars because it made me think and it showed me ways of seeing that I didn’t notice before. He must have been quite the extrovert personality type, because he entirely associated the sublime and beautiful with external object......more

Goodreads review by Mehmed on August 06, 2018

Some words that come to mind when describing this book are: eloquent, overwhelming, thought-provoking, confusing, and "what have I just read?" On face value, the author seems to be merely defining and distinguishing the words, beautiful and sublime. The title is pretty self-explanatory and the book......more

Goodreads review by Mia on August 11, 2023

I read Frankenstein side by side and it was fun looking at the parallels. Mary Shelley made perfect application of Burke's theory on the workings of passions related to sublime. The essays will be brooding for a reader, maybe give certain amusing insights, but to a writer alone they're of any real v......more

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