Aesthetics

Aesthetics is a discipline of philosophy which deals with understanding aesthetic evaluation and judgment through the application of reason. Aesthetics does not make judgments about the quality of works of art, but rather tries to apply reason to judgments others make about art. Aesthetic philosophers will tend to be interested in questions such as "what criteria do people use to discern art from non-art and are they reasonable?" and "what is it which we are talking about when we talk about expressivity in art?"

Traditionally, aesthetics and ethics have been tied together - in the common 'triple' phrasing of truth, justice and beauty. Plato, in books two and three The Republic, proposed banning poetry and drama from his envisioned city - or at least keeping them under a strict censorial leash, lest they shape the upbringing of the Guardians and Auxiliaries in a way that would not lead to the good of the city. Republic provides a three-fold criteria for good art or art that would not be censored in the Republic: the truth of the ideas contained in the art, it's ethical worth and whether or not it is psychologically beneficial to the viewer. One can reduce the truth and psychology to ethical benefit: for one might say that art that is not psychologically beneficial is immoral, as is art that spreads falsehoods. Similarly to Plato, Immanuel Kant considers good art to be morally good, as did Friedrich Schiller. Many modern thinkers disagree - Monroe Beardsley being a prime example.

Plato's view of art as being purely imitation of nature does not cover more modern and non-representative art, such as that of, say, Jackson Pollock or Henri Matisse.