aestheticsn.
/iːsˈθɛtɪks/, /ᵻsˈθɛtɪks/, /ɛsˈθɛtɪks/, U.S. /ɛsˈθɛdɪks/, /əsˈθɛdɪks/ With singular or plural agreement.
1.
a. The philosophy of the beautiful or of art; a system of principles for the appreciation of the beautiful, etc.; the distinctive underlying principles of a work of art or a genre, the works of an artist, the arts of a culture, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > aesthetics > [noun]
aesthetics1770
aesthetic1798
1770 W. Hooper tr. J. F. von Bielfeld Elements Universal Erudition II. ii. i. 108 The general theory of the polite arts, or esthetics [Fr. Esthetique], necessarily supposes, therefore, certain rules.
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 J. Skelton Nugæ Criticæ i. 82 John is a man of taste, and knows something of practical æsthetics.
1872 H. Spencer Princ. Psychol. (ed. 2) II. viii. ix. 635 To deal fully with the psychology of æsthetics is out of the question.
1905 Philos. Rev. 14 18 Æsthetics cries out for special aid from the ontologist. ‘What’, he asks, ‘is..the inner nature of that which we call the real of beauty?’
1929 G. Meudell Pleasant Career Spendthrift 265 It is a crime against nomenclature, against patriotism, against common sense, and above all against aesthetics..to call Maoriland—New Zealand.
1963 Amer. Lit. 35 245 Emerson's aesthetics were deeply reasoned.
1976 J. D. Andrew Major Film Theories vii. 195 Mitry is anxious to formulate the aesthetics of film.
2008 Church Times 20 June 34/2 The coherence of an aesthetics of pop which can stand alongside an aesthetics of Bach.
b. The (attractive) appearance or sound of something.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > good taste > aesthetic quality or good taste > [noun] > pleasantness to the aesthetic sense > something aesthetically pleasing
poem1642
eye music1842
aesthetics1959
1959 C. O. Chichester et al. in Adv. in Food Res. 9 p. viii The work which has been done on the appearance factors and the aesthetics of food materials.
1974 R. A. Caro Power Broker vi. xxxiv. 784 The Board of Estimate had directed Triborough to study all proposals—including one for a tunnel less destructive to Manhattan real estate and aesthetics.
1983 Sci. Amer. Nov. j23/2 Whatever one may think of the aesthetics of the term ‘softnomics’.
1991 D. Purcell Place of Stones (1992) ix. 329 She wanted to have a chair-lift installed for him but he steadfastly refused to ruin the aesthetics of the staircase.
2006 Stuff Feb. 14 While the Vision:M is undoubtedly pretty, it can't compete with a 'Pod's aesthetics.
2. = aesthetic n. 1.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > physical sensibility > [noun] > science of sensuous perception
aesthetics1803
aesthesics1879
1803 Edinb. Rev. 1 253 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.
1825 T. Carlyle Life Schiller iii. 174 The only department [of transcendentalism] to which he attached himself with his ordinary zeal was that which relates to the principles of the imitative arts, with their moral influences, and which in the Kantean nomenclature has been designated by the term Æsthetics, or the doctrine of sentiments and emotions.
1919 A. E. Hull tr. M. D. Calvocoressi Musorgsky iv. 75 Let us put aside the first aspect of the question, as relevant to transcendental aesthetics and resolvable only by a priori arguments, and let us consider only the second aspect.
1941 Stud. in Philol. 38 656 Dallas' definition of imagination..has other and less definite sources in transcendental aesthetics.
2000 New German Critique 79 138 The introduction of the notion of transcendental aesthetics was itself polemical.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2011; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1770