{"id":955,"date":"2011-03-25T10:09:33","date_gmt":"2011-03-25T14:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/?p=955"},"modified":"2013-08-29T17:38:15","modified_gmt":"2013-08-29T21:38:15","slug":"analects-of-the-core-104","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/2011\/03\/25\/analects-of-the-core-104\/","title":{"rendered":"Analects of the Core: Burke on the sublimity of pain"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>W<span>HATEVER<\/span> is fitted in any sort to excite the  ideas of pain and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort  terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a  manner analogous to terror, is a source of the <em>sublime;<\/em> that is,  it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of  feeling. I say the strongest emotion, because I am satisfied the ideas  of pain are much more powerful than those which enter on the part of  pleasure. Without all doubt, the torments which we may be made to suffer  are much greater in their effect on the body and mind, than any  pleasure which the most learned voluptuary could suggest, or than the  liveliest imagination, and the most sound and exquisitely sensible body,  could enjoy. Nay, I am in great doubt whether any man could be found,  who would earn a life of the most perfect satisfaction, at the price of  ending it in the torments, which justice inflicted in a few hours on the  late unfortunate regicide in France. But as pain is stronger in its  operation than pleasure, so death is in general a much more affecting  idea than pain; because there are very few pains, however exquisite,  which are not preferred to death: nay, what generally makes pain itself,  if I may say so, more painful, is, that it is considered as an emissary  of this king of terrors. When danger or pain press too nearly, they are  incapable of giving any delight, and are simply terrible; but at  certain distances, and with certain modifications, they may be, and they  are, delightful, as we every day experience. The cause of this I shall  endeavour to investigate hereafter.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&#8211; Edmund Burke, <em>On the sublime and Beautiful<\/em> (&#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bartleby.com\/24\/2\/107.html\">Of the Sublime<\/a>&#8220;)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WHATEVER is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1284,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3691],"tags":[48735,5433,5432],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1284"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=955"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3046,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955\/revisions\/3046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}