Moral Comfort versus Tragic Downfall: Kant's Concept of the Dynamically Sublime and Schelling's Tragic Alternative

The first few sections of this article concern the pleasure taken in the dynamically sublime. I argue that, according to Kant, intuited nature does not only serve to occasion that pleasure, but is actually a constitutive element of it. The latter sections concern the role of the dynamically sublime in Kant's philosophy. I argue that this notion is a significant link between morality and theology. This explains why some unique anti-Kantian arguments directed against the link have led Schelling to develop an alternative conception of the sublime, which must be understood in terms of tragedy.