MERAVIGLIARSI DI SÉ: DALL’IMBARAZZO DI FRONTE AL MONDO ALL’AMMIRAZIONE PER L’UMANITÀ

Abstract

In Kant’s philosophy, astonishment is to be meant as a state of mind of embarrassment in front of the empirical world. This emotional condition contains intrinsically an element of displeasure. In this perspective, Kant defines a particular kind of astonishment, that has not an epistemic function but a moral dimension, i.e. the admiration for the humanity in us. It is then only through an aesthetic gaze on the world that we can be astonished by it and at the same time we can direct the same gaze toward ourselves and to have a feeling of admiration for the humanity in us. This is actually the experience of the sublime.