Beauty – An Aesthetic Experience

Beauty is defined as a psychological quality of things that makes these things enjoyable to see. Such things as humans, landscapes and beautiful art all have this in common. In fact beauty is defined in much the same way as the definition of beauty is. Aesthetics, with beauty and art being the most important of the philosophy of aesthetics, is the study of beauty and art. Philosophy of aesthetics is often called, “the science of love.”

Philosophy of aesthetics and aesthetic experience are closely related but distinct. Aesthetic experience occurs when a person looks at or tries to look at, an object that satisfies some aesthetic need. The person then feels a certain desire for the object, or what is usually called a “desire” for the object. This desire is not directed towards a tangible object, but rather towards the aesthetic experience of seeing the object.

Aesthetics and philosophy of aesthetics go hand in hand because both philosophy and aesthetics require an observer to seek out and evaluate beauty. Philosophy of aesthetics also requires an aesthetic evaluation of beauty to be valid. Modern aesthetics is actually the study of beauty that differs from classical aesthetics. In the modern age we tend to think in terms of beauty in terms of technological advances, societal expectations and personal standards. Although beauty is subjective, modern aesthetics does not focus on identifying particular attributes of beauty, instead beauty is seen as an objective quality that can be measured.