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Kant’s Mathematical Sublime and the Role of the Infinite: Reply to Crowther

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2015

Simon D. Smith
Simon D. Smith*
Affiliation:
University College London
*
Email: uctysds@live.ucl.ac.uk
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Abstract

This paper offers an analysis of Kant’s account of the mathematical sublime with reference to his claim that ‘Nature is thus sublime in those of its appearances the intuition of which brings with them the idea of its infinity’ (CJ, 5: 255). In undertaking this analysis I challenge Paul Crowther’s interpretation of this species of aesthetic experience, and I reject his interpretation as not being reflective of Kant’s actual position. I go on to show that the experience of the mathematical sublime is necessarily connected with the progression of the imagination in its move towards the infinite.

Keywords

mathematical sublimeestimation of magnitudeprogression of the imaginationthe infinite
Type
Articles
Information
Kantian Review , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , March 2015 , pp. 99 - 120
Copyright
© Kantian Review 2015 

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