Aesthetics

Abstract

The term aesthetics derives from the Greek αίσθησις ς, which means perception. The derivative modern meanings of beauty, taste, and artistic criteria arose in the 18th century. I have chosen the name Aesthetics to describe an object in our graphical system because of its original connotations and because the modern word perception is subjective rather than objective; perception refers to the perceiver rather than the object. Aesthetics turn graphs into graphics so that they are perceivable, but they are not the perceptions themselves. A modern psychologist would most likely call aesthetics in this sense stimuli, aspects, or features, but these words are less precise for our purposes.