The Beautiful and the Sublime in Western Aesthetics: Exploring Their Fundamental Differences and Their Significance for Design Design Art and Philosophy

Abstract

The beautiful and the sublime are important concepts in Western aesthetics. Beauty originated in ancient Greek philosophy. Plato emphasized that beauty is an ideal form apprehended through reason, while Aristotle focused on the empirical aspects of beauty, such as harmony, proportion, and clarity. The sublime is associated with awe-inspiring nature, human reason, imagination, and the transcendent aspects of human existence, evoking complex and even contradictory emotions. Both are rooted in human psychology but influenced by cultural and individual differences. In art, the sublime is often used to represent the vastness of nature, while beauty is used to depict human beauty. In philosophy, the sublime explores the limits of reason, while beauty explores the relationship between aesthetics and ethics. The beautiful and the sublime have influenced the development of artistic styles and movements, sparking debates about the essence of beauty, and the relationship between art and morality.

Keywords: Beautiful, Sublime, Western Aesthetics, Fundamental Differences, Significance, Design Art and Philosophy