What, according to Kant, are the roles of displeasure and pleasure in our experience of the sublime? You may like to refer to Kant’s account of the purposiveness (and contrapurposiveness) of the two types of sublime. You may also compare and contrast with Aristotle’s and/or Nietzsche’s accounts of the purpose of negative feelings in your answer.
• Identify different parts of the question (e.g. one part more ‘descriptive’, the other more ‘critical’ or ‘interpretive’). Think about how you’ll answer both parts.
• Identify the question’s ambiguities, or the points at which it might be developed into something more specific.
• Practice both analysis (taking the terms of the question apart) and synthesis (reconstructing them in an original or more critical manner).
• Turn the question into a ‘problem’, i.e. turn it into a challenge that cannot simply be answered, but instead demands a productive and original engagement from you.
