The Sublime and Human Creations

Abstract

Immanuel Kant pre-emptively excludes all man-made contrivances from his definition of the sublime. The limitations of human creation and the purposiveness in its design preclude it from consideration from both mathematical and dynamic sublimity. At best, human creation is “second-order” or “impurely” sublime. This paper thoroughly considers this assertion and searches for possible exceptions, both hypothetical and extant. It implies that humankind may be a nearing a point where it is able to create a pure example of the sublime, as defined by Kant.

Keywords

• Kant
• The Sublime
• Technology