Sublimate and sublime

All humans have desires, which translate into emotions and feelings. The hidden danger, of course, is the inability to grasp the sensual with the rational. We don't need Socrates or Aristotle to tell us how detrimental it can be when the heart overtakes the mind and seizes control of the soul- anyone who's paid sufficient attention to himself understands it instinctively. Such is the background for a long-lasting Western tradition that stresses rational dominance. Sublime, a concept originated from the Hellenistic belief in the Olympian Gods, thus finds its way into the philosophies of Kant and Nietzsche.

Yet, as Hegel pointed out, it is highly impossible for the Arts to establish association with the spiritual as in ancient Greek. Looking at that today, we need to concern ourselves more with sublimation - the ability to translate "raw feelings" into something of a higher level. What that "something" is depends a lot on the individual, but sublimation should have its place as that of belief in Kant's philosophy.

Teachers of the Arts - whether literature, music or art - thus need to focus on the way feelings and emotions are expressed. Usually interpreted as "genres" from the perspective of our specialised fields, these modes of sublimation determine the way individuals transcend themselves, or for that matter, whether they do succeed in transcendence. Psychology, philosophy, aesthetics, language (the study of the medium) need to come together so as to follow the development of trends. Ultimately, these could have a net effect on whether a particular tradition or culture lives on, since modes of sublimation will in turn decide whether we are able to resonate with the souls of our ancestors.