Empirical aesthetics is associated with two research questions: How the mind generally assigns value to sensory stimuli and how it responds specifically to art objects. Researchers have debated whether these phenomena share enough to warrant being collapsed into a single field. To ask how these particular questions came to be associated with aesthetics, we conducted Google Ngram analyses over a corpus of books spanning two centuries. Analyses trace the frequency of “big questions” about art and beauty, and how the term aesthetic appears relative to other concepts. Results indicate the 19th century was dominated by notions of beauty and an aesthetic sense. Questions about art and aesthetic experience become more frequent during the 20th century. Results are interpreted with respect to associated affective and evaluative concepts, art movements, and scientific debates. Understanding how aesthetics is used over time can cast light on the ways current work is being conceived and pursued.

经验美学与两个研究问题有关：思维通常如何将价值分配给感官刺激，以及思维如何对艺术品做出特别反应。研究人员一直在争论这些现象是否具有足够的共享性，以至于必须崩溃。为了询问这些特定问题如何与美学联系起来，我们对跨越两个世纪的一整套图书进行了Google Ngram分析。分析追溯了关于艺术和美丽的“大问题”的发生频率，以及“美学”一词相对于其他概念的出现方式。结果表明，在19世纪，美感和审美意识占据主导地位。有关艺术和艺术的问题在20世纪，审美经历变得更加频繁。结合相关的情感和评估概念，艺术运动和科学辩论来解释结果。了解随着时间的流逝如何使用美学可以使当前工作的构思和追求方式得到启发。