太子爷小说网 > 英语电子书 > the critique of judgement >

第28节

the critique of judgement-第28节

小说: the critique of judgement 字数: 每页4000字

按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!



ny thing that is in heaven or on earth; or under the earth; etc。〃 This commandment can alone explain the enthusiasm which the Jewish people; in their moral period; felt for their religion when comparing themselves with others; or the pride inspired by Mohammedanism。 The very same holds good of our representation of the moral law and of our native capacity for morality。 The fear that; if we divest this representation of everything that can commend it to the senses; it will thereupon be attended only with a cold and lifeless approbation and not with any moving force or emotion; is wholly unwarranted。 The very reverse is the truth。 For when nothing any longer meets the eye of sense; and the unmistakable and ineffaceable idea of morality is left in possession of the field; there would be need rather of tempering the ardour of an unbounded imagination to prevent it rising to enthusiasm; than of seeking to lend these ideas the aid of images and childish devices for fear of their being wanting in potency。 For this reason; governments have gladly let religion be fully equipped with these accessories; seeking in this way to relieve their subjects of the exertion; but to deprive them; at the same time; of the ability; required for expanding their spiritual powers beyond the limits arbitrarily laid down for them; and which facilitate their being treated as though they were merely passive。   This pure; elevating; merely negative presentation of morality involves; on the other hand; no fear of fanaticism; which is a delusion that would will some VISION beyond all the bounds of sensibility; i。e。; would dream according to principles (rational raving)。 The safeguard is the purely negative character of the presentation。 For the inscrutability of the idea of freedom precludes all positive presentation。 The moral law; however; is a sufficient and original source of determination within us: so it does not for a moment permit us to cast about for a ground of determination external to itself。 If enthusiasm is comparable to delirium; fanaticism may be compared to mania。 Of these; the latter is least of all compatible with the sublime; for it is profoundly ridiculous。 In enthusiasm; as an affection; the imagination is unbridled; in fanaticism; as a deep…seated; brooding passion; it is anomalous。 The first is a transitory accident to which the healthiest understanding is liable to become at times the victim; the second is an undermining disease。   Simplicity (artless finality) is; as it were; the style adopted by nature in the sublime。 It is also that of morality。 The latter is a second (supersensible) nature; whose laws alone we know; without being able to attain to an intuition of the supersensible faculty within us…that which contains the ground of this legislation。   One further remark。 The delight in the sublime; no less than in the beautiful; by reason of its universal communicability not alone is plainly distinguished from other aesthetic judgements; but also from this same property acquires an interest in society (in which it admits of such communication)。 Yet; despite this; we have to note the fact that isolation from all society is looked upon as something sublime; provided it rests upon ideas which disregard all sensible interest。 To be self…sufficing; and so not to stand in need of society; yet without being unsociable; i。e。; without shunning it; is something approaching the sublime…a remark applicable to all superiority to wants。 On the other hand; to shun our fellow men from misanthropy; because of enmity towards them; or from anthropophobia; because we imagine the hand of every man is against us; is partly odious; partly contemptible。 There is; however; a misanthropy (most improperly so called); the tendency towards which is to be found with advancing years in many right minded men; that; as far as good will goes; is no doubt; philanthropic enough; but as the result of long and sad experience; is widely removed from delight in mankind。 We see evidences of this in the propensity to recluseness; in the fanciful desire for a retired country seat; or else (with the young) in the dream of the happiness of being able to spend one's life with a little family on an island unknown to the rest of the world…material of which novelists or writers of Robinsonades know how to make such good use。 Falsehood; ingratitude; injustice; the puerility of the ends which we ourselves look upon as great and momentous; and to compass which man inflicts upon his brother man all imaginable evils…these all so contradict the idea of what men might be if they only would; and are so at variance with our active wish to see them better; that; to avoid hating where we cannot love; it seems but a slight sacrifice to forego all the joys of fellowship with our kind。 This sadness; which is not directed to the evils which fate brings down upon others (a sadness which springs from sympathy); but to those which they inflict upon themselves (one which is based on antipathy in questions of principle); is sublime because it is founded on ideas; whereas that springing from sympathy can only be accounted beautiful。 Sassure; who was no less ingenious than profound; in the description of his Alpine travels remarks of Bonhomme; one of the Savoy mountains: 〃There reigns there a certain insipid sadness。〃 He recognized; therefore; that; besides this; there is an interesting sadness; such as is inspired by the sight of some desolate place into which men might fain withdraw themselves so as to hear no more of the world without; and be no longer versed in its affairs; a place; however; which must yet not be so altogether inhospitable as only to afford a most miserable retreat for a human being。 I only make this observation as a reminder that even melancholy; (but not dispirited sadness); may take its place among the vigorous affections; provided it has its root in moral ideas。 If; however; it is grounded upon sympathy; and; as such; is lovable; it belongs only to the languid affections。 And this serves to call attention to the mental temperament which in the first case alone is sublime are

  The transcendental exposition of aesthetic judgements now brought to a close may be compared with the physiological; as worked out by Burke and many acute men among us; so that we may see where a merely empirical exposition of the sublime and beautiful would bring us。 Burke; who deserves to be called the foremost author in this method of treatment; deduces; on these lines; 〃that the feeling of the sublime is grounded on the impulse towards self…preservation and on fear; i。e。; on a pain; which; since it does not go the length of disordering the bodily parts; calls forth movements which; as they clear the vessels; whether fine or gross; of a dangerous and troublesome encumbrance; are capable of producing delight; not pleasure but a sort of delightful horror; a sort of tranquility tinged With terror。〃 The beautiful; which he grounds on love (from which; still; he would have desire kept separate); he reduces to 〃the relaxing; slackening; and enervating of the fibres of the body; and consequently a softening; a dissolving; a languor; and a fainting; dying; and melting away for pleasure。〃 And this explanation he supports; not alone by instances in which the feeling of the beautiful as well as of the sublime is capable of being excited in us by the imagination in conjunction with the understanding; but even by instances when it is in conjunction with sensations。 As psychological observations; these analyses of our mental phenomena are extremely fine; and supply a wealth of material for the favourite investigations of empirical anthropology。 But; besides that; there is no denying the fact that all representations within us; no matter whether they are objectively merely sensible or wholly intellectual; are still subjectively associable with gratification or pain; however imperceptible either of these may be。 (For these representations one and all have an influence on the feeling of life; and none of them; so far as it is a modification of the subject; can be indifferent。) We must even admit that; as Epicurus maintained; gratification and pain though proceeding from the imagination or even from representations of the understanding; are always in the last resort corporeal; since apart from any feeling of the bodily organ life would be merely a consciousness of one's existence; and could not include any feeling of well…being or the reverse; i。e。; of the furtherance or hindrance of the vital forces。 For; of itself alone; the mind is all life (the life…principle itself); and hindrance or furtherance has to be sought outside it; and yet in the man himself consequently in the connection with his body and melting   But if we attribute the delight in the object wholly and entirely to the gratification which it affords through charm or emotion; then we must not exact from any one else agreement with the aesthetic judgement passed by us。 For; in such matters each person rightly consults his own personal feeling alone。 But in that case there is an end of all censorship of taste…unless the afforded by others as the result of a contingent coincidence of their judgements is to be held over us as commanding our assent。 But this principle

返回目录 上一页 下一页 回到顶部 0 1

你可能喜欢的