A Philosophical Enquiry

Burke's A Philosophical Enquiry is an important treatise in the history of philosophical aesthetics, putting forth a theory of two concepts of central, perennial importance to the field of aesthetics, namely, the beautiful and the sublime. Written before Burke turned 19, it is his only purely philosophical work. Despite being such an early work, Burke's Philosophical Enquiry was noted by such later philosophers as Diderot and Kant and has remained influential in the field of aesthetics since its publication in 1757. ( Eric Jonas) (6 hr 33 min)