Abstract
Kant identified in the “spectators’” enthusiastic response to the French Revolution the clear sign of a moral disposition in humankind. Following Hannah Arendt’s classic interpretation, but departing from it in important respects, I attempt to show in this paper that the “spectatorial” account of Kant’s view of the French Revolution makes sense only if it is understood in terms of a subject’s aesthetic response to objects of natural sublimity, and only if this aesthetic experience is instrumentalized for purposes of moral education.
Pages
29-43
Recommended Citation
Neculau, Radu
(2008)
"The Sublimity of Violence: Kant and the Aesthetic Response to the French Revolution,"
Symposium (Canadian Journal of Continental Philosophy / Revue canadienne de philosophie continentale):
Vol. 12:
Iss.
1, Article 4.
Available at:
http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/symposium/vol12/iss1/4