The Egalitarian Sublime

A new, egalitarian, process philosophy of the sublime

We call sublime those things and experiences supposed to be the very best. What if the best encourages the worst? What if the best leads to inequality and exploitation?
Against unjust legacies of the traditional sublime James Williams defends an anarchist sublime: multiple, self-destructive and temporary, opposed to any idea of highest value to be shared by all, but always imposed on the powerless.
He criticises the sublime, over its long history and in recent returns to sublime nature and technologies. Deploying a new critical method, Williams shows how the sublime has always led to inequality, even where it underpins ideas of cosmopolitan enlightenment and even when refined by Burke, Kant, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer and Zizek.

James Williams is Honorary Professor in the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University.