AESTHETICS (PHILOSOPHY): HISTORY, CHARACTERISTICS, AUTHORS - PHILOSOPHY - 2025

The aesthetic corresponds to a branch of philosophy that explores everything related to the beauty of things. Even the philosophy of art also has a close relationship.

This term is complex, because it is linked to a series of precepts and personal judgments of what we consider ugly, pretty, elegant, sublime, beautiful. These judgments, in turn, are conditioned by our personal experiences and how we perceive the world.

Although aesthetics is linked to everything related to beauty and art, this concept also has to do with the perception of things in general.

It is a reflection of what we appreciate beauty, although there will always be a subjective component since very personal emotions and sensations are involved.

History

Although the term began to be known from the middle of the 18th century by Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten as a way of expressing what had to do with the study of beauty and art, aesthetics began as an object of study for some Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle.

Aesthetics in Plato and Aristotle

For Plato, aesthetics had to do with the ability of man to create beautiful objects that highlighted some essential characteristics such as proportion, harmony and unity. However, it was Aristotle who added a key component that is even considered today: symmetry.

With the passage of time, this concept was also linked to religion. For example, according to the precepts of Islam, no work made by man is comparable to Allah, while in the case of the Hindus the experience of beauty had rather a spiritual component that could be represented through symbols.

On the other side of the world, Chinese philosophers like Confucius, analyzed the complex meanings of aesthetics. They considered that both the arts and poetry were means that man used to express his inner nature.

Middle Ages

With the arrival of the Middle Ages and Christianity, art, aesthetics, and religion went hand in hand to celebrate God's work on earth.

The peak was achieved in the Renaissance thanks to the patronage of the Catholic Church, so the theological component is strong.

Some thinkers of the time took the concept of aesthetics and tried to study it separately, without considering art. Thomas Aquinas and Peter Abelard, for example, considered rather the beauty of the human face and body.

On the other hand, in the 18th century, philosophers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau stated that the concept of beauty had to do not only with man or with art, but also with nature.

Modernity

Georg Hegel is the one who takes aesthetics and transfers the term to the field of art, since according to his premises, it is this terrain where the manifestation of the spirit of man is possible, bringing together the harmonic and symmetrical.

However, it is Emmanuel Kant who establishes that to define whether something is beautiful or not, a set of judgments is required that will help us establish the purpose or purposes of what we perceive.

In his work, Critique of Judgment, Kant indicates that to arrive at this reflection, the internal process of the subject is important; that is, the understanding that this object produces and the sensations that it generates.

Twentieth century

In the 20th century, the genesis of a movement began that questions the parameters of what is considered beautiful and ugly, in order to do an exercise in reflection on aesthetics and art.

Dadaism, for example, would be an artistic school that would question these precepts from the approach of collage as an expression of the fragmentation of the discipline.

Andy Warhol would transform reality through photo manipulation and screen printing, and modern artists would include unconventional materials to generate abstract pieces away from the figurative.

Other criticisms would also manifest themselves through surrealism and expressionism, in order to remove the darkest feelings of the human being. The unsightly would be a current that would serve to reject the already established.

Aesthetic qualities

The aesthetic qualities of objects according to aesthetics are:

- Sensory qualities: they refer to the pleasant sensation that the object generates when it is perceived by any of the senses. What matters is that it must be pleasant for the individual.

- Formal qualities: they have to do with the conjugation of the elements that make up the whole. For example; in a painting, the contrast of colors and shapes.

- Vital qualities: they refer to the sensations and emotions generated by what we perceive. It also takes into account the intrinsic meanings and their dimensions.

Authors

Throughout history, there have been a number of thinkers, philosophers and artists who have printed their interpretations on aesthetics to help better understand this concept. Some of the most important are:

- Plato: take into account that the beautiful is also related to the creative capacity of the human being.

- Aristotle: introduces the universal elements of beauty, which are order, symmetry and definition.

- Edmund Burke: establishes the distinction between different concepts of aesthetics that allow separating personal perceptions from those of the majority.

-Georg Hegel: the form of beauty has to do with the appearance of elements such as regularity, symmetry and harmony.

- Martin Heidegger: who indicates the differentiation between art and beauty. The first has to do with logic and the second, with the study of aesthetics.

-Emmanuel Kant: the understanding of aesthetics is not only through the form or the sensations that it produces, but also through the imagination that it awakens in us. In addition, it states that beauty has the impossibility of being measured because its interpretation will always vary in each subject.

- Guy Sircello: In recent studies of aesthetics, Sircello focuses on the analysis of beauty, love and the sublime.

It is worth mentioning that in recent years, thinkers and theorists have included in the analysis of Aesthetics what is related to communications, the advancement of the cybernetic world and mathematics.

References

1. Aesthethics. (sf). In Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved: January 31, 2018 from Encyclopedia Britannica at britannica.com.
2. Aesthethics. (sf). In the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved: January 31, 2018 from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy at iep.utm.edu.
3. Aesthethics. (2008). In The Basics of Philosophy. Retrieved: January 31, 2018 from The Basics of Philoshopy at philosophybasics.com.
4. Aesthethics. (sf). On Wikipedia. Retrieved: January 31, 2018 from Wikipedia at en.wikipedia.org.
5. Aesthetic qualities. (sf). On Wikipedia. Retrieved: January 31, 2018 from Wikipedia at es.wikipedia.org.
6. Esthetic. (sf). On Wikipedia. Retrieved: January 31, 2018 from Wikipedia at es.wikipedia.org.