A Philosophical Inquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas: Burke's Classic Treatise on Beauty, Terror, Taste, and the Sublime - Hardcover

Burke, Edmund, III: - Edmund Burke (1729-1797) was an Irish-born statesman, philosopher, political thinker, orator, and writer who became one of the major figures of eighteenth-century British intellectual and parliamentary life. Born in Dublin and educated at Trinity College, Burke moved to London and established himself as a writer before entering Parliament, where he became known for his speeches and writings on empire, revolution, political prudence, party government, and constitutional order. His major works include A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents, and writings on America, India, and political representation.Burke's influence extends across aesthetics, political philosophy, literary criticism, conservative thought, and the history of rhetoric. In A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, written early in his career, he approached art and nature through sensation, passion, fear, pleasure, and the body's response to experience. That psychological emphasis helped make the book one of the most important eighteenth-century works on the sublime and beautiful, influencing later discussions of Romanticism, Gothic literature, landscape, terror, imagination, and the philosophy of art.