Meaning of aesthetics (what is it, concept and definition)

What is Aesthetics:

Aesthetics is the discipline that studies the nature of beauty and the perception of it by individuals, which is why it is closely related to art.

The word aesthetic derives from the modern Latin aestheticus , and the latter from the Greek aisthētikós meaning "perception or sensitivity" through the senses.

Aesthetics has different meanings depending on the context in which it is used, although all revolve around the perception of beauty .

In everyday contexts, it is used to refer to the physical appearance of a person, of a thing, or of space. For example: "Putting the garbage can on the door affects the aesthetics of the facade."

The word aesthetic can also refer to hygiene and personal presentation. For example: "This boy has obtained A in aesthetics: he is always neat and his works look orderly."

Hence also that beautification centers are sometimes called aesthetic , which include services such as waxing, skin care, reducing massages, rejuvenating treatments, etc.

There is talk of cosmetic surgery when a surgical intervention is carried out whose purpose is to improve the physical appearance of a person.

The main aesthetic values ​​are: beauty, balance, harmony, tragedy and horribleness.

Aesthetics, philosophy and art

In philosophy, aesthetics is the branch that studies the essence of beauty and the perception of the beauty of art, that is, taste. As a differentiated field of study, that is, as a discipline, aesthetics emerged in the eighteenth century, in the context of the Enlightenment or Enlightenment.

As early as 1735, the German philosopher Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten (1714-1762) described aesthetics as "the science of sensibility and of art's relationship with beauty" in his text Philosophical Reflections on the Poem .

The same would be done by the Prussian philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) in his Critique of Judgment , pointing out that aesthetics is "the branch of philosophy that studies and investigates the origin of pure feeling and its manifestation as art".

However, the discussion about the nature of beauty is as old as philosophy and art. For this reason, it has been treated since Ancient Greece by authors such as Plato and Aristotle. Plato theorized about beauty and art in works like The Banquet and The Republic. In them, he introduced the notion of the arts as an imitation of the Idea (mimesis).

Aristotle, who had been a student of Plato, would do the same in works such as Poetic Art and Rhetoric and Politics , but he would leave aside Platonic idealism to focus on a material approach. It will be he who develops the idea of catharsis .

These two authors thus represent the two main approaches to beauty analysis that have taken place in the West. From them, other authors have discussed the subject and its implications throughout history.

Among them we can mention Plotinus, Saint Augustine, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Leonardo Da Vinci, René Descartes, Joseph Addison, Shaftesbury, Francis Hutcheson, Edmund Burke, David Hume, Madame de Lambert, Diderot, Lessing, Voltaire, Wolff, Gottlieb Baumgarten, Inmanuel Kant, Friedrich Shlegel, Novalis, Hegel, among others.

See also:

• Catharsis.Art.