Also available in: Italian

The distinction between the two concepts of something being beautiful and sublime is very simple: the beauty is given by the formal completeness and harmony of the parts, while the sublime is the ability to upset the soul of who observes the phenomenon.

Several philosophers dealt with the theme of the sublime including Kant and Longinus , who wrote the treatise On the Sublime in the first century BC , and also had its admirers and scholars who came to think that beauty is subjective.

In a study published a few months ago on ” Frontiers in human neuroscience “neuroscientists Tomohiro Ishizu and Semir Zeki of University College of London have sought neurobiological feedback to help explain the distinction between the two concepts.

Some volunteers have had to look at the experience of the sublime in 175 images from the “National Geographic Magazine“, in particular they had to look at the mountains, waterfalls, volcanoes, tornadoes, ocean waves, deserts. Using magnetic resonance imaging the two scholars have determined brain activity associated with the experience of the sublime. In fact, the observation of these phenomena activate brain areas such as the basal ganglia, hippocampus and cerebellum while not involving the amygdala and the insula, areas associated with the perception of emotional stimuli. The observation of beauty instead activates the neural structures such as the orbitofrontal cortex. The two scholars have thus shown that the beautiful and the sublime are built on the neural mechanisms totally distinct and different from each other.

This discovery contributes to the scientific and philosophical debate that also can help the artists, architects, writers and writers to know in advance what feelings arouse their works.

Picture: parados.it