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"Aesthetic Confluences between the Everyday and Nature’s Experience"

No. 72 (2025): Thémata Revista de Filosofía

From the Exceptional Sublime to the Common Sublime: A Critical Review of Environmental Aesthetics.

DOI
https://doi.org/10.12795/themata.2025.i72.09
Submitted
September 15, 2025
Published
2025-12-31

Abstract

This article offers a critical review of the evolution of the concept of the sublime in environmental aesthetics, tracing its development from Modernity to contemporary interpretations. It examines the contributions of Burke, Kant, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche, before moving to more recent approaches, from Leopold’s US preservationism to Hepburn and Berleant as key figures in contemporary environmental aesthetics. The study thus proposes a genealogy of the sublime, identifying its conceptual transformations and suggesting new avenues for exploration through the idea of the common sublime, in dialogue with Berleant’s ecological sublime and centred on participatory and shared experiences of the environment.

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