IB Philosophy 2.1 the Nature of Art Key Definitions

Aesthetics is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of art, beauty, and taste, examining what art is, what makes something beautiful, and how we form judgements about artistic value.

The autonomy of art is the philosophical thesis that art possesses intrinsic value and should be judged by aesthetic criteria alone, independent of moral, political, religious, or social purposes.

Creativity is the capacity to produce something original and valuable, whether through imaginative insight, technical skill, or the transformation of existing materials. In aesthetics, creativity refers specifically to the generation of works of art that exhibit novelty, expression, or meaning.

The institutional context of art is the network of museums, galleries, auction houses, critics, curators, and academic programmes that collectively determine what is exhibited, valued, preserved, and recognised as art within a given society.

Mimesis (Greek for "imitation") is the theory, originating with Plato and developed by Aristotle, that art is fundamentally an imitation or representation of reality, whether of physical objects, human actions, or universal truths.

the ancient Greek concept of productive knowledge, referring to the capacity to bring something into existence through skilled making. For Aristotle, techne is distinguished from episteme (theoretical knowledge) and phronesis (practical wisdom) because it concerns the creation of artefacts that do not arise naturally. It combines knowledge of universal principles with the ability to apply them to particular cases, making it a form of rational productive capacity.

The muse is, in ancient Greek thought, one of the divine beings who inspire artistic creation, representing the philosophical idea that creativity originates from a source outside the artist, whether understood as divine inspiration, unconscious forces, or sudden imaginative insight.