Thursday, February 7, 2013

Genius, Sublimity, Tragedy

In #46 of the Critique of Judgment, Kant observes that "Genius is the innate mental disposition through which nature gives the rule to art"  Now, it is unclear if he would go so far as to explicitly agree with Nietzsche that, in the process, the medium of Genius is "no longer an artist, has become a work of art", as it is characterized in section 1 of Birth of Tragedy, though agreement seems implicit in the possibility that Dance, which combines process and product, can be 'beautiful' in Kant's system.  Still, though he does briefly classify Tragedy as 'sublime', i. e. in the General Comment and #52, he shows none of Nietzsche's appreciation for the implication that the creative process, in which an individual is completely overwhelmed by Nature, is itself 'sublime', even as its product is judged as 'beautiful'.  But, if he had recognized Genius as occasioning Sublimity, he might have more sharply distinguished the pleasure enjoyed in transcending Nature to Reason, from the pleasure accompanying the representation of the universal communicability of Sublimity.  That is, he might have more sharply distinguished what Nietzsche calls the 'Apollinian' principle, from the 'Socratic' principle.

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