aes·thet·ics

or es·thet·ics (ĕs-thĕt′ĭks)

1. (used with a sing. verb)

a. The branch of philosophy that deals with the nature, expression, and perception of beauty, as in the fine arts.

b. The study of the psychological responses to beauty and artistic experiences.

2. (used with a sing. or pl. verb)

a. A conception of what is artistically valid or beautiful: minimalist aesthetics.

b. An artistically beautiful or pleasing appearance: "They're looking for quality construction, not aesthetics" (Ron Schram).

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

aesthetics

(iːsˈθɛtɪks; ɪs-) or

esthetics

n (functioning as singular)

1. (Philosophy) the branch of philosophy concerned with the study of such concepts as beauty, taste, etc

2. (Art Terms) the study of the rules and principles of art

[C18: from Greek aisthētikos perceptible by the senses, from aisthesthai to perceive]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

aes•thet•ics

or es•thet•ics

(ɛsˈθɛt ɪks)

n. (used with a sing. v.)

1. the branch of philosophy dealing with taste and the study of beauty in nature and art.

2. a particular theory of beauty or fine art.

[1815–25]

aesthetics, esthetics

a branch of philosophy dealing with beauty and the beautiful. — aesthete, aesthetic, n., adj. — aesthetical, adj.

aesthetics

esthetics (US) [iːsˈθetɪks] N → estética fsing

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

aesthetics

[iːsˈθɛtɪks] n → esthétique f

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

aesthetics

, (US) esthetics

n sing → Ästhetik f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

aesthetics

esthetics (Am) [iːsˈθɛtɪks] nsg → estetica

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

There is indeed only one law of beauty on which we may rely,--that it invariably breaks all the laws laid down for it by the professors of aesthetics. All the beauty that has ever been in the world has broken the laws of all previous beauty, and unwillingly dictated laws to the beauty that succeeded it,--laws which that beauty has no less spiritedly broken, to prove in turn dictator to its successor.

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"The Muirhead Library of Philosophy was designed as a contribution to the History of Modern Philosophy under the heads: first of Different Schools of Thought--Sensationalist, Realist, Idealist, Intuitivist; secondly of different Subjects--Psychology, Ethics, Aesthetics, Political Philosophy, Theology.

In the earlier series of books containing, among others, Bosanquet's "History of Aesthetic," Pfleiderer's "Rational Theology since Kant," Albee's "History of English Utilitarianism," Bonar's "Philosophy and Political Economy," Brett's "History of Psychology," Ritchie's "Natural Rights," these objects were to a large extent effected.

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Of late years the Manilla rope has in the American fishery almost entirely superseded hemp as a material for whale-lines; for, though not so durable as hemp, it is stronger, and far more soft and elastic; and I will add (since there is an aesthetics in all things), is much more handsome and becoming to the boat, than hemp.

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He glanced at the title and read, "The Science of AEsthetics." Next, he entered into the apparition, trimmed the student-lamp, and himself went on reading "The Science of AEsthetics."

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She talked apparently of life in general, of its difficulties, moral and physical, of its surprising turns, of its unexpected contacts, of the choice and rare personalities that drift on it as if on the sea; of the distinction that letters and art gave to it, the nobility and consolations there are in aesthetics, of the privileges they confer on individuals and (this was the first connected statement I caught) that Mills agreed with her in the general point of view as to the inner worth of individualities and in the particular instance of it on which she had opened to him her innermost heart.

I just simply let myself go admiring her as though I had been a mere slave of aesthetics: the perfect grace, the amazing poise of that venerable head, the assured as if royal - yes, royal even flow of the voice.

It arose from a picture, from two pictures and also from a phrase pronounced by a man, who in the science of life and in the perception of aesthetic truth had no equal in the world of culture.

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A powerful, intellectual analysis of some well-marked subject, in such form as makes literature enduring, is indeed what the world might have looked for from him: those institutes of aesthetics, for instance, which might exist, after Lessing and Hegel, but which certainly do not exist yet.

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But down here he acts the little god with his gentility, and his patronage, and his sham aesthetics, and every one--even your mother--is taken in."

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Differences in politics, in ethics and even in aesthetics need not arouse angry antagonism.

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You preach to me about vice and aesthetics! You--a Schiller, you--an idealist!

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