The Spectator and the Sublime: Aesthetic Conditions and Ethical Requirements in Addison, Burke and Kant

Abstract

This paper discusses the conditions and requirements established by Kant for the subject that seeks access to the sublime. In this regard, argues that the spectator's situation is the only subjective position allowing you to experience this kind of feeling. Around which there are two objectives. First, to show that authors such as Addison and Burke constitute a precedent to the Kantian formulation, not only because they raised similar demands for the subject as spectator, but also because they glimpsed and discussed the problems arising from them. Second, to affirm that, beyond the precedent and the thematic continuity with regard to his predecessors, the theory of Kant marks a break from a sort of "ethical turn" that introduces in his conception of the sublime.