Definitions HQ

Aestheticism (n.) flourishes ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠in almost every epoch alongside the decline of humanity — fine manners never go hand in hand with good morals, nor polished behaviour with truth.

Aestheticism (n.) cannot ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠educate anyone, since it takes for granted the very love of beauty it should create; it turns away from the evil and the ugly and is at bottom a refined hedonism.

Aestheticism (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠a modern bias: understanding the Dionysus cult or medieval Christianity only aesthetically is like understanding a railway bridge from a purely aesthetic angle.

Aestheticism (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠the pale substitute for a whole world of feeling closed to us — the primitive's dread of the bird's cry and the old tree.

Aestheticism (n.) gives ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠a treacherous sense of liberation and superiority, as intellectual understanding does — which collapses when feeling intervenes, for feeling binds one to meaning and so to ethical standards.