A Philosophical Enquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful

Burke’s second edition seeks to respond to certain criticisms of his first edition. Although he does not change his stance, the second edition includes more detailed explanations of his ideas. Burke acknowledges that the study of aesthetics is elusive, and he encourages his readers to carry the torch of research and study beyond what he has prepared.

Burke opens with a bold claim: All taste is the same. Burke asserts that all humans have the same relative taste—the same likes and dislikes, the same appreciations for art. Furthermore, this taste can be measured through quantifiable means.

Burke begins by defining taste, although he admits that he finds definitions extremely limiting. He determines that taste is the process of the mind when casting judgement about the arts. All humans are given natural powers: the senses, imagination, and judgement. Burke asserts that all these powers contribute to, and are a part of, taste.

He develops his argument that all humans agree on certain principles of culinary taste. Bitter things, like coffee and beer, taste bitter to all people. Sweet things, like sugar and honey, taste sweet to all people. Whether or not a person likes these tastes is directly related to the item’s association with either pleasure or pain. These two feelings—pleasure and pain—drive taste for all people. While some people develop an affinity for certain things, it is the pleasure they get from their effects that causes them to think they like them.

Burke uses the examples of sourness and bitterness. Although many people profess to like beer or coffee, their appreciation of these beverages is related to the pleasure they receive from their narcotic effects. The only way to distinguish between natural taste and acquired taste is whether a person would describe something pleasant with the descriptor—because no person would delightfully exclaim that something was bitter, Burke asserts that no person has a natural taste for bitterness. The same is true, Burke claims, for visual stimulants. He argues that all humans would find the sight of a summer field more pleasant than the same field in winter. The senses translate information as pleasurable or painful, and taste is developed from these sensations.

Imagination plays a secondary role in taste. Burke explains that the imagination can take any sensory impression and create a variation of it. He argues that no ideas produced by the imagination are entirely new; they must always mimic information that has been received through the senses. The imagination is an internal playground that is directly tied to pain and pleasure: “Now the imagination is the most extensive province of pleasure and pain, as it is the region of our fears and our hopes, and of all our passions that are connected with them” (18). The images created in this way bring pain or pleasure, but Burke suggests there is always pleasure in the formation of an imitation.

Taste remains the same over the course of one’s life, but how one feels about art may change as more knowledge is gained. An artist who looks back on their earlier work and feels embarrassed did not suffer a lack of taste at the beginning—they merely lacked the experience and knowledge to realize their imitation in a more exacting way. Burke sees taste as developing by degrees: All tastes are the same, but as people become educated, their tastes become increasingly refined and deeper. A person’s judgement is an important factor in developing taste. If a person has poor judgement, their taste will inevitably be considered poor.

Consistent with the canon of philosophical writing, Burke opens by defining the terms he will use throughout the work and developing an understanding of the basic principles of his ideas on aesthetics. He outlines the various emotions and processes of thinking that contribute to pleasure, pain, and taste.

Burke identifies curiosity as the most basic function of the human mind. Children are endlessly curious, and novelty is their goal. They seek anything that is new or different. Curiosity causes the individual to fly from one concept to the next, never really landing to discover something in its depth. However, curiosity is central to passion—which forms the basis for all pleasure and pain.

Burke suggests that it is impossible to define pain and pleasure. It is possible, however, to identify different types of pain and pleasure and how they affect the mind. He rejects an earlier belief that pain emerges when pleasure is taken away and that pleasure emerges when pain is taken away. Instead, he suggests that both pain and pleasure are independent of one another. Emotions like delight are predicated upon the removal of pain, but other experiences of pleasure have no ties to pain. All humans experience one of three states at any given moment: indifference, pleasure, or pain. Some modes of pain or pleasure are positive.

Rather than eliciting pain, the absence of pleasure produces three human conditions: indifference, disappointment, and grief. The latter can produce its own type of pleasure: “It is the nature of grief to keep its object perpetually in its eye, to present it in its most pleasurable views, to repeat all the circumstances that attend it, even to the last minuteness; to go back to every particular enjoyment, to dwell upon each, and to find a thousand new perfections in all” (32). Grief invites people into a loop of sadness and pleasure.

Most passions, whether born from pleasure or pain, can be divided into two categories: self-preservation and society. Self-preservation is tied to pain and danger; the individual worries about sickness, death, and safety. Passions for society fall under two headings: sexes and general society. Societal pleasure and pain may be derived from spending time with others or in solitude. Spending time in good company can elicit pleasure just as spending time with bad company can elicit positive pain. The same is true for solitude.

The passions then evolve into three branches: sympathy, imitation, and ambition. Sympathy invites the individual to live inside and understand the experiences of others. Poetry and painting lend themselves to this type of passion. Whereas sympathy derives pleasure from understanding what others feel, imitation derives pleasure from understanding what others do. Ambition keeps artists from feeling satisfied with merely replicating the feelings and experiences of others. Ambition creates space for the individual to distinguish ideas from the ideas of others.

Beauty is a social quality that causes an individual to feel affection and tenderness. Burke separates beauty from lust, although he recognizes the connection between the two. Beauty has a mysteriousness to it that the philosopher suggests may reflect divine wisdom. Burke then introduces the sublime for the first time, which he defines as anything that excites ideas of pain, producing the most powerful emotion.