a. and sb.; also esthetic. [mod. ad. Gr. αἰσθητικ-ός, of or pertaining to αἰσθητά, things perceptible by the senses, things material (as opposed to νοητά things thinkable or immaterial), also ‘perceptive, sharp in the senses’; f. vb. stem αἰσθε- ‘feel, apprehend by the senses.’ Applied in Germ. by Baumgarten (1750–58, Æsthetica) to ‘criticism of taste’ considered as a science or philosophy; against which, as a misuse of the word found in German only, protest was made by Kant (1781, Crit. R. V. 21), who applied the name, in accordance with the ancient distinction of αἰσθητά and νοητά, to ‘the science which treats of the conditions of sensuous perception,’ a sense retained in the Kantian philosophy, and found in English c. 1800. But Baumgarten’s use of æsthetik found popular acceptance, and appeared in Eng. after 1830, though its adoption was long opposed. (See below.) Recent extravagances in the adoption of a sentimental archaism as the ideal of beauty have still further removed æsthetic and its derivatives from their etymological and purely philosophical meaning.]
¶ The following quotations illustrate the history of the word:
1832. Penny Cycl., I. 156. Æsthetics (Æsthetik) is the designation given by German writers to a branch of philosophical inquiry, the object of which is a philosophical theory of the beautiful.
1832. Philol. Museum, I. 369. Beautiful and ugly depend on principles of taste, which it would be very convenient to designate by an adjective…. Some English writers, have adopted the term esthetical. This has not however yet become an established English word…. Perception in general is something very different from that peculiar and complex modification of it which takes cognizance of the beauties of poetry and art. Esthetics would naturally designate the doctrine of perception in general, and might be wanted as a technical term for that purpose. By the Kantian school, indeed, esthetic is thus used to denote that branch of metaphysics which contains the laws of perception…. As an additional reason for hesitating before we adopt esthetic, it may be noticed that even in Germany it is not yet established beyond contest.
1842. Gwilt, Encycl. Architect., 673. There has lately grown into use in the arts a silly pedantic term under the name of Æsthetics … it is however one of the metaphysical and useless additions to nomenclature in the arts in which the German writers abound.
1859. Sir W. Hamilton, Lect. Metaph., I. vii. 124. It is nearly a century since Baumgarten … first applied the term Æsthetic to the doctrine which we vaguely and periphrastically denominate the Philosophy of Taste, the theory of the Fine Arts, the Science of the Beautiful, etc.,—and this term is now in general acceptation, not only in Germany, but throughout the other countries of Europe. The term Apolaustic would have been a more appropriate designation.
A. adj.
† 1. Of or pertaining to sensuous perception, received by the senses. Obs.
1798. W. Taylor, in Monthly Rev., XXV. 585. In the dialect peculiar to Professor Kant … his receptivity for aesthetic gratification [is] not delicate.
2. Of or pertaining to the appreciation or criticism of the beautiful.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res. (1858), 77. In answer to a cry for solid pudding … comes, epigrammatically enough, the invitation to a wash of quite fluid Æsthetic Tea!
1855. Bain, Senses & Intell., III. iv. § 27 (1864), 622. The first object of an artist is to gratify the feelings of taste, or the proper æsthetic emotions.
1872. H. Spencer, Psychol. (ed. 2), II. § 533. The æsthetic sentiments originate from the play-impulse. Ibid., § 535. The æsthetic character of a feeling is habitually associated with separateness from life-serving function.
3. Of persons, animals: Having or showing an appreciation of the beautiful or pleasing; tasteful, of refined taste. Of things: In accordance with the principles of good taste (or what is conventionally regarded as such).
1871. Darwin, Desc. Man, II. xiii. 39. Birds appear to be the most æsthetic of all animals, excepting of course, man, and they have nearly the same taste for the beautiful as we have.
1875. Farrar, Silence & Voices, III. 62. A corrupt Hellenism, which regards sin forsooth with æsthetic toleration.
1880. W. S. Gilbert, Patience, I. 24. I am a broken-hearted troubadour, Whose mind’s æsthetic, and whose tastes are pure.
Mod. Colloq. He must have æsthetic wall-paper and a dado.
B. sb. commonly pl. æsthetics, as collect. sing.: but also in sing., after Ger. æsthetik, Fr. esthétique.
† 1. The science that treats of the conditions of sensuous perception. Obs.
1803. Edin. Rev., I. 253. (Villiers, Philos. of Kant) If the experimentalists of the Institute had abandoned their physics for … the study of transcendental æsthetics and all the refinements and abstractions of pure reason.
2. The philosophy or theory of taste, or of the perception of the beautiful in nature and art.
a. pl.
1833. Penny Cycl., I. 157/1. Most German writers, who have published systematic treatises on æsthetics, have followed the principles laid down by Baumgarten, Kant, or Schelling.
1862. Shirley, Nug. Crit., I. 82. John is a man of taste, and knows something of practical æsthetics.
1872. H. Spencer, Psychol., II. § 536. To deal fully with the psychology of æsthetics is out of the question.
b. sing.
1857. T. E. Webb, Intell. of Locke, v. 84. The two propositions which constitute the Æsthetic of the Essay.
1864. Press, 21 May, 481. Certes, we English are behind hand in æsthetic.
1868. M. Pattison, Academ. Organ., § 5. 196. Two [professors], of the science [of art] and æsthetic, dealing with—1. Painting and sculpture, [etc.].
