Baumgarten on the sublime: Aesthetics and ethics

Abstract

In this paper, Baumgarten?s account of the sublime will be inspected with regard to the category of aesthetic greatness (magnitudo aesthetica), and in view of his analysis of aesthetic subjectivity. The Sublime is here shown to be the topic within which Baumgarten aims to prove the inner connection between aesthetics and ethics, or, more precisely, that the aesthetic domain is intrinsically related to moral acts and decision-making. My analysis will primarily focus on Baumgarten?s Aesthetics, but it will also include his other works, like Metaphysics and Ethics, as well as the comparison with Pseudo-Longinus?s text On the Sublime. My research should indicate one possible interpretation of Baumgarten?s project, such that it would not discard its purpose, the autonomy of aesthetical domain, but which could, at the same time, determine the relations of aesthetics with other forms of human thought.