ABSTRACT
The term sublime has a quite spectacular, comet-like history in philosophy. The key achievement of the term was to dislocate beauty as a central concern not just in philosophy but also in the vision of the world and, by replacing harmony with intensity, thus completing the Newtonian revolution in thinking. The effort to clarify the meaning of sublime, through etymology and semantic history thus results in a disorienting paradox. Still, the relationship between the alchemical and aesthetical meanings of the term are even more complicated, as the term is contained in the title of one of the most astonishing and perplexing works that were ever produced in antiquity. The right methodological angle, in particular the concern with liminality, immediately renders it evident why, of all people, the dubious honour of completing a big share of the anti-Platonic revolution. By transporting Newton's ideas from mechanics and physics into the realm of human perception and aesthetics was completed by an Irishman.
