At the end of ‘Passion and striving: The language of emotion and political hierarchy’, Susan James discusses Burke’s concept of the sublime, tracing its origins in his criticisms of Hobbes, Malebranche, and Hume, who, James informs us, ‘made the mistake of supposing that fear is invariably a negative affect’.1 On the contrary, for Burke the experience of fear can arouse pleasure provided that w...

This paper is about the possible relation between aesthetic experience of sublime, as presented in On Sublime by Pseudo-Longinus, and abstract art according to W. Kandinsky A. Reinhardt. The analysis confirms complementarity Pseudo-Loninus?s description sublime idea spiritual ascent provoked arts, which characteristic for both these painters. their writings also points towards necessary paintin...