Abstract In environmental political theory, the sublime has been invoked to portray nature as an awe-inspiring site of spiritual elevation and restful contemplation. While the sublime has shaped conservation efforts, it also has perpetuated a grandiose yet static vision of nature that obscures the flourishing and vibrant ecosystemic webs of life. Drawing on Immanuel Kant’s aesthetic considerations of nature and his teleological concept of purposiveness, I recover and reconceptualize an ecological sublime , which challenges anthropocentric myth by evoking a sense of uncanniness, revealing displays of agency and creativity that undermine the dichotomous barrier between humans and non-humans. Most importantly, the ecological sublime demonstrates that the web of life will rebuild and continue past this ecological crisis, regardless of whether or not humanity remains.
Matthew Harvey (Sun,) studied this question.