[From Greek aisthetikos: pertaining to perception; extended to refer to perception of the beautiful by Alexander Baumgarten.]
(ethics) The idea that the highest values are aesthetic rather than ethical or religious. This idea is often associated with nineteenth-century romanticism in general, and personally with Friedrich Schiller (author of The Aesthetic Education of Man) and Friedrich Nietzsche, both of whom sometimes advocated the goal of making one's life a work of art.