Aesthetics is the philosophy of the beautiful; the name given to the branch of philosophy or of science which is concerned with that class of emotions, or with those attributes, real or apparent, of objects generally comprehended under the term beauty, and other related expressions. The term aesthetics first received this application from Baumgarten (1714-1762), a German philosopher, who was the first modern writer to treat systematically on the subject, though the beautiful had received attention at the hands of philosophers from early times. Socrates, according to Xenophon, regarded the beautiful as coincident with the good, and both as resolvable into the useful. Plato, in accordance with his idealistic theory, held the existence of an absolute beauty, which is the ground of beauty in all things. He also asserted the intimate union of the good, the beautiful, and the true.
Aristotle treated of the subject in much more detail than Plato, but chiefly from the scientific or critical point of view. In his treatises on Poetry and Rhetoric he lays down a theory of art, and establishes principles of beauty. His philosophical views were in many respects opposed to those of Plato. He does not admit an absolute conception of the beautiful; but he distinguishes beauty from the good, the useful, the fit, and the necessary. He resolves beauty into certain elements, as order, symmetry, definiteness. A distinction of beauty, according to him, is the absence of lust or desire in the pleasure it excites. Beauty has no utilitarian or ethical object; the aim of art is merely to give immediate pleasure; its essence is imitation. Plotinus agrees with Plato, and disagrees with Aristotle, in holding that beauty may subsist in single and simple objects, and consequently in restoring the absolute conception of beauty. He differs from Plato and Aristotle in raising art above nature.
Baumgarten's treatment of aesthetics is essentially Platonic. He made the division of philosophy into logic, ethics, and aesthetics; the first dealing with knowledge, the second with action (will and desire), the third with beauty. He limits aesthetics to the conceptions derived from the senses, and makes them consist in confused or obscured conceptions, in contradistinction to logical knowledge, which consists in clear conceptions. Kant defines beauty in reference to his four categories, quantity, quality, relation, and modality. In accordance with the subjective character of his system he denies an absolute conception of beauty, but his detailed treatment of the subject is inconsistent with the denial. Thus he attributes a beauty to single colours and tones, not on any plea of complexity, but on the ground of purity. He holds also that the highest meaning of beauty is to symbolize moral good, and arbitrarily attaches moral characters to the seven primary colours. The value of art is mediate, and the beauty of art is inferior to that of nature.
The treatment of beauty in the systems of Schelling and Hegel could with difficulty be made comprehensible without a detailed reference to the principles of these remarkable speculations. English writers on beauty are numerous, but they rarely ascend to the heights of German speculation. Shaftesbury adopted the notion that beauty is perceived by a special internal sense; in which he was followed by Hutcheson, who held that beauty existed only in the perceiving mind, and not in the object. Numerous English writers, among whom the principal are Alison and Jeffrey, have supported the theory that the source of beauty is to be found in association - a theory analogous to that which places morality in sympathy. The ability of its supporters gave this view a temporary popularity, but its baselessness has been effectively exposed by successive critics. Dugald Stewart attempted to show that there is no common quality in the beautiful beyond that of producing a certain refined pleasure; and Bain agrees with this criticism, but endeavours to restrict the beautiful within a group of emotions chiefly excited by association or combination of simpler elementary feelings. HerbertSpencer has a theory of beauty which is subservient to the theory of evolution. He makes beauty consist in the play of the higher powers of perception and emotion, denned as an activity not directly subservient to any processes conducive to life, but being gratifications sought for themselves alone. He classifies aesthetic pleasures according to the complexity of the emotions excited, or the number of powers duly exercised; and he attributes the depth and apparent vagueness of musical emotions to associations with vocal tones built up during vast ages. Among numerous writers who have made valuable contributions to the scientific discussion of aesthetics may be mentioned Winckelmann, Lessing, Bichter, the Schlegels, Gervinus, Helmholtz, and Kuskin. Research Aesthetics
Fitz is the old Norman French word for fils, son; and was used as a prefix in certain surnames, as Fitzgerald (son of Gerald), Fitzherbert (son of Herbert), Fitzmaurice (son of Maurice), Fitzwilliam (son of William), especially in the surnames of the illegitimate sons of kings or princes of the blood, etc as, Fitzroy, Fitzclarence. Research Fitz
Heredity is the transmission from parent to offspring of physical and intellectual characters. This has been at all times believed in, but it was only in Victorian times that the conviction was, for the first time, in the hands of Darwin, Herbert Spencer, and Wallace, been methodized so as to embody an important zoological doctrine. The Victorian view of evolution in biology rested upon the belief that acquired peculiarities, or differences which may arise between parent and offspring, could be transmitted with some probability of permanence, especially if the variation presented by the young was determined by external conditions, or if it was such as to adapt the possessor more thoroughly to the conditions under which it is placed. On the other hand, while variations may be thus permanently transmitted by heredity, yet this very tendency of the young to repeat the characters of the parent is also a check on variability, or the tendency of structure and attributes to change with the environment. It may be noted that while the strong tendency to hereditary transmission works in the majority of cases so as to perpetuate those most fitted to survive, it secures the same result in other cases by a converse action. The descent of disease in families tends ultimately to purify the race by accumulating incapacities which end in the extinction of the enfeebled strain. The discovery of genetics in the 20th century built upon the earlier theories of heredity, and explained, to a degree, the transport of the passing on of the characteristics. Research Heredity
A Pembroke table is a drop-leaf table with fly rails and usually with one or more draws at the ends of the skirt. It was probably named after Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, who originally ordered a table of this design around 1600. Research Pembroke Table
The X Club was a private British dining club of scientists which met from 1864 to 1892. The X Club was comprised of Joseph Hooker the botanist; T H Huxley a biologist; John Tyndall, a physicist; John Lubbock, a banker, ethnologist, and entomologist; William Spottiswoode, the Queen's Printer and an amateur mathematician; Edward Frankland, a chemist; George Busk, a retired surgeon, comparative anatomist, and microscopist; T A Hirst, a mathematician; and HerbertSpencer, a sociologist and philosopher of evolution. Research X Club
Sir Arthur Herbert Dyke Acland was an English politician, educational reformer and former clergyman. He was born in 1847 at Holnicote, Somerset and died in 1926. Educated at Rugby and Oxford he became a Liberal member of parliament for Rotherham in 1885, serving until 1899. Research Arthur Acland
Charles Herbert Best was a Canadian physiologist. He was born in 1899 and died in 1978. With Banting he discovered the use of insulin in treating diabetes. Research Charles Best
Edward Herbert (LordHerbert of Cherbury, in Shropshire) was an English writer. He was born in 1581, and died in 1648/ Educated at University College, Oxford, in 1609 he distinguished himself at the siege of Juliers under the Prince of Orange, and in 1614 served again in the Low Countries under the same leader. In 1618 he was sent as ambassador to the court of France, but was recalled in consequence of a quarrel with Constable Luynes, the favourite of Louis XIII. On the death of Luynes, however, he was sent back to France as resident ambassador.
At Paris, in 1624, he printed his famous book, De Veritate, with the object of asserting the sufficiency, universality, and perfection of natural religion, In 1625 he returned from France and was created an Irish peer, and in 1631 an English baron. He joined the parliamentary party, but subsequently left it, and suffered in fortune in consequence.
The character of LordHerbert, as shown in his memoirs, was vain, punctilious, and quixotic, but open, generous, and brave. Another work of his was De Religione Gentilium. Soon after his death was published his Life and Reign of Henry VIII, and a collection of his poems was published in 1665. Research Edward Herbert
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Abbreviations
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