COGITATION: Aesthetics

Aesthetics is the philosophy concerned with the essence or perception of beauty within works of art. This brings into question whether of not an object or work of art has a naturally unique quality to make assume the role of being beautiful or if it is simply judged in a particular aesthetic mode; thus, showing the difference between beauty and sublimity. The psychology of art deals with the elements of art which have effects upon our judgement and response such as colours and lines. It can be said that colours determine largely how we judge an object even down to the appreciation of clothes, but we are simply using aesthetic judgement. This criticism is not confined to simply a particular work or style of art, but it also examines their structure, meaning, problems, and evaluation with other works.

The term "aesthetics" was introduced in 1753 by Alexander Gaumgarten, a German philosopher. The topic of aesthetics was the main focus of philosophers in the past, and beauty had long since been pursed. Aesthetic theories have been proposed from early times. For example, the first aesthetic theory known was that of Plato who believed that reality consists of archetypes, reoccurring symbols or images which occur in the arts of literature, or things beyond human perception.

Aristotle, on the other hand, remarked that art was an imitation, simply finishing for nature what nature could not complete itself, and that one could simply imitate "things as they ought to be". Therefore, imitation is not simply the copying or deriving from a work, but it is the representation of the aspect of things. For both Aristotle and Plato, it was impossible to separate aesthetics from politics and morality.

The basis of beauty can be found in one's mind because everyone has their own personal qualification of what is deemed to be beautiful. This difference shows how people judge the beauty of art by different standards. One can look at a painting of someone who is "ugly", yet the painting itself can be judged as beautiful. This is the art of aesthetics. Beauty is something that is everyone finds pleasing or desirable; therefore, the beauty perceived for each individual may appear to be different. This beauty can simply be confined to its aesthetics demands or functionality.

Aesthetics is not merely limited to reality, but also to one's imagination which acts as a reliever of tension and forms fantasies which can reveal hidden subconscious conflicts. These fantasies form escape, a concealed form of escape which can only be seen as beautiful by the creator of such a reverie: this is the belief of Sigmund Freud who believed that the value of art has a therapeutic use.

Aesthetics is the main component used for judging an objects artistic merit and beauty. the use of aesthetics to show the beauty of art expands far beyond the limitations of nature or works of art, but into the art of writing as well. The use of words to captivate a reader's mind is an act of using aesthetics to draw attention not only to the beauty of the words, but the beauty which is being read. One cannot simply limit aesthetics to beauty because aesthetics also deals with the structure of a work, whether architectural or literary. the structure of sentences, phrases, and words are of aesthetic value to the one who reads and to the reader's mind, not simply mere words upon paper. Therefore, aesthetics, the idea or beauty, is a universal philosophy.