Aesthetics is a word originating from the Greek term aisthetiké, which means “one who notices, who perceives”. Aesthetics is known as the philosophy of art, or study of what is beautiful in artistic and natural manifestations.
Aesthetics is a science that refers to beauty and also addresses the feeling that something beautiful awakens within each individual.
As it is closely linked to the concept of beauty, there are several centers or aesthetic clinics, where people can make several treatments aimed at improving your physical appearance.
Aesthetics in philosophy
Aesthetics is also known as the philosophy of beauty and in its origins was a word that indicated the theory of sensible knowledge (esthesiology).
The meaning that is currently attributed to aesthetics was introduced by A.G. Baumgarten, to describe what at his time was called "taste criticism".
Over time, philosophy has always questioned itself about the essence of the beautiful, the central topic of aesthetics.
According to Plato, the beautiful is identified with the good, and all idealist aesthetics have its origins in this Platonic notion. In the case of Aristotle, aesthetics is based on two realist principles: the theory of imitation and catharsis.
The Neoplatonic aesthetics, defended by Plotinus, reappeared in the Renaissance, particularly with A.A.C. Shaftesbury (school English of moral sentiment) and also in some notions of romantic idealism, which contemplate the beautiful as a manifestation of the spirit.
French classicism (Descartes and Boileau-Despréaux) maintains Aristotle's ideas, despite that rationalism introduces the concepts of "clarity" and "distinction" as the criteria of beauty.
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In the 18th century, the history of aesthetics reached its peak. The English analyzed the aesthetic impression and established the difference between the beauty experienced immediately and the relative beauty. There was also a separation between the beautiful and the "sublime" (E. Burke).
In the Critique of Judgment, Kant determined the a priori character of the aesthetic judgment, identifying the beautiful as a "endless purpose" and naming the "science of all a priori principles of sensibility" as aesthetic transcendental. German classicism was enhanced by Kant's foundations, as can be seen from Schiller, Goethe, W. Von Humboldt.
In the nineteenth century, G.T. Fechner created inductive or experimental aesthetics, as opposed to speculative aesthetics.
In contemporary aesthetics, it is important to highlight two trends: the ontological-metaphysical one, which radically changes the category of the beautiful, and replaces it with the true or truthful aspect; and the historical-sociological trend, which contemplates the work of art as a document and as a manifestation of man's work, analyzed in its own socio-historical scope.
