‖ theoria rare.
(θiːˈɔərɪə)
[a. Gr. θεωρία a looking at, contemplation, f. θεωρεῖν to look at.]
† 1. ? Contemplation, survey. Obs. rare.
| 1590 Marlowe 2nd Pt. Tamburl. iv. iii, My love, In whom the learned Rabbis of this age Might find as many wondrous miracles As in the theoria of the world! |
2. The perception of beauty regarded as a moral faculty. (Used in this sense by Ruskin, in contradistinction to æsthesis: cf. theoretic a. 4.)
| 1846 Ruskin Mod. Paint. II. iii. i. ii. §1 The impressions of beauty..are neither sensual nor intellectual, but moral; and for the faculty receiving them..no term can be more accurate..than that employed by the Greeks, ‘Theoretic’, which I pray permission..to use, and to call the operation of the faculty itself, Theoria. Ibid. §6 The mere animal consciousness of the pleasantness I call æsthesis; but the exulting, reverent, and grateful perception of it I call Theoria. |