Definition of "aesthetic" []

• Relating to the philosophy or theories of aesthetics. (adjective)
• Of or concerning the appreciation of beauty or good taste: the aesthetic faculties. (adjective)
• Characterized by a heightened sensitivity to beauty. (adjective)
• Artistic: The play was an aesthetic success. (adjective)
• Informal Conforming to accepted notions of good taste. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "It is important to make clear that as the existence of the hedonistic side in every spiritual activity has given rise to the confusion between the aesthetic activity and the useful or pleasurable, so the existence, or, better, the possibility of constructing this physical side, has generated the confusion between _aesthetic_ expression and expression"
• "Passing on to the study of more complex concepts, where the aesthetic activity is found in conjunction with other orders of facts, and showing the mode of this union or complication, we find ourselves at once face to face with the concept of _feeling_ and with the feelings which are called _aesthetic_."
• "In his Three Lectures on Aesthetic, Bosanquet focuses primarily on aesthetic appreciation, analysing the ˜aesthetic attitude™ which, he says, is an activity not of the mind alone, but of the whole person ” “body-and-mind.”"