ABSTRACT
Dating back to the early modern theories of Burke and Kant, philosophical accounts have made cognitive failure central to the experience of the sublime. This chapter argues for a re-conception of the sublime in terms of the notion of epistemic expansion. Doing so not only provides a plausible account of traditional examples of the sublime but also provides us with language that can capture an important but neglected aesthetic dimension of experimental science: the expansion of human perception. Recognising this dimension, it is argued, also enriches our understanding of the ways in which experimental science can facilitate broader public engagement with science.
