Aestheticism is an exaggerated devotion to poetry, art and/or music, with deliberate indifference to practical matters. It is a term applied to the exaggerated expression of the doctrine that art is self-sufficient hence does not need to serve an ulterior or underlying purpose, whether social, moral, religious, or political.

Aestheticism can also be defined as the acceptance of artistic beauty and taste as the essential and fundamental standard, with ethical and other standards, inherent, basic or otherwise, being secondary. In actuality, both the doctrine of Aestheticism and its exaggeration are clearly expressed in the phrase ‘art for art's sake’ which in the United Kingdom (England) became the slogan of the movement in the late 19th century.