Aesthetics as a branch of philosophy dates back to ancient Greece, where thinkers like Plato and Aristotle debated the nature of beauty and artistic expression. Plato believed that beauty was an ideal form, existing beyond the physical world, while Aristotle saw beauty as something tangible, rooted in harmony and proportion. These ideas laid the foundation for centuries of philosophical discussions on aesthetics, influencing later thinkers like Immanuel Kant and Friedrich Schiller.
Kant, in particular, made significant contributions to aesthetic theory by distinguishing between the agreeable, the beautiful, and the sublime. He argued that beauty is experienced through a disinterested pleasure, meaning that true aesthetic appreciation is free from personal desire or practical utility. The sublime, on the other hand, refers to an overwhelming sense of awe, often triggered by nature’s vastness or power, such as towering mountains or stormy seas. This distinction between beauty and the sublime continues to shape modern aesthetic thought.