The Sublime and Wonder

This paper explores the contemporary relevance of the sublime and wonder to questions and issues within the context of nature, environment, aesthetics, and religion. I begin with a brief, recent history of aesthetic and religious discussions of sublimity, before examining the contemporary sublime in relation to ‘other-regarding attitudes’ toward nature.
I then consider recent cross-disciplinary discussions of varieties of wonder and show how wonder invites receptivity in relation to the more-than-human world. In the concluding section, I offer a comparison of the sublime and wonder in order to show the different ways in which they support sympathetic attitudes with respect to the environment.

SublimAE (the Sublime and Aesthetic Experiences) seminar, in connection with SublimAE ANR project, will focus on the interdisciplinary study of Aesthetic Experiences with an eye to the sublime by bringing together philosophy, psychology, and social sciences. We will explore, on the one hand, how the experience of the sublime connects to other similar or contrast experiences (the beautiful, terrible beauty, awe, wonder, the uncanny, …), and, on the other hand, the impact these experiences, and more specifically aesthetic ones, have on our representation of the self. The seminar will feature presentations by members of the project, as well as by invited speakers.

• Venue : Virtual BigBlueButton room
• Contact : Margherita Arcangeli, Jérôme Dokic
• For the full programme click here.