Aesthetic Conflict and Contradiction: The Extra-Aesthetic Value of the Sublime in Kant and Kierkegaard

This thesis analyses and compares the philosophical conceptions of the aesthetic experience of the sublime in the writings of Immanuel Kant and Søren Kierkegaard. It draws on Kant’s aesthetic and moral theory, as well as Kierkegaard’s early criticism of aesthetic life and late writings on ethico-religious life. The thesis shows that, in both authors, the experience of the sublime is ambiguous and transformative. It is an overwhelming experience of the limits of human knowledge and agency, at the same time that it can contribute positively to political, ethical and religious life.