affects derived from beauty and, by virtue of its opposition, ugliness as
well. Ugliness' importance develops as a by-product of beauty.
The modern study of aesthetics owes its origin to Alexander
Gottlieb Baumgarten, who in his 1750 Aesthetica defined it as the
science of the sensate. The very term 'aesthetic', derived from the Greek
aisthetikos for sense perception, and from aisthanesthai to perceive, has
come to be recognized solely as the study of the beautiful, which, given
its origins, is misleading. Baumgarten aligns art and philosophy with the
aesthetic because they are disciplines that engage the mind and senses.
"Die Asthetik (als Theorie der freien Kiinste, als untere Erkenntnislehre,
als Kunst des schonen Denkens und als Kunst der Vernunft analogen
Denkens) ist die Wissenschaft der sinnlichen Erkenntnis" (Baumgarten
1988). In an attempt to legitmize aesthetics, Baumgarten designates the
liberal arts as a form of science. He formalizes "beautiful thinking" by
implementing an analytical discourse concerning art. For all his
discussion of the "schone[n] Kiinste," very little attention is paid to the
potential of ugliness. For Baumgarten, ugliness exists in terms of
Unvollkommenheit, as imperfection or incompleteness. This
Unvollkommenheit is recognizable through, "die Beschranktheit, der
billige Effekt, die Falschheit, die schwer durchschaubare Dunkelheit, das
unentschiedene Schwanken, die Tragheit" (Baumgarten 1988). His vague
definition sublates ugliness as an undesirable phenomenon by
identifying it in terms of the negative sensations associated with it.
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