what is aesthetic in philosophy

Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art. It examines aesthetic values, often expressed through judgments of taste. The traditional interest in beauty itself broadened in the eighteenth century to include the sublime, and since 1950 or so, the number of pure aesthetic concepts discussed in the literature has expanded even more. Philosophical aesthetics is considered to center on these latter-day developments. The core issues in philosophical aesthetics are nowadays fairly settled. Aesthetics is concerned with the nature and appreciation of art, beauty, and good taste. It has also been defined as "critical reflection on art, culture, and nature". Its subject matter lies on the threshold between the uniqueness of individual experience and the universality of aesthetic principles. Aestheticians weigh a culturally contingent conception of art versus one that is purely theoretical. They study the varieties of art in relation to their physical, social, and cultural environments. Aestheticians also use psychology to understand how people see, hear, imagine, think, and feel about the works of art.