In this study, aesthetics’ and logic’s positioning in Alexander Baumgarten’s philosophy, which is considered a milestone in modern philosophical aesthetics, will be explained. It in his work Meditationes philosophicae de nonnullis ad poema pertinentibus that Baumgarten first uses the concept of aisthesis in its original meaning in terms of sense and perception. Here, aesthetics is presented as a concept that is chosen to distinguish between two types of knowledge. These two types of knowledge that Baumgarten refers to are: logical knowledge and sensational knowledge. In this same work, Baumgarten has stated that with superior cognitive faculties one understands logic, while with inferior cognitive faculties one understands aesthetics. It could be asserted that this determination by Baumgarten was an attempt to draw a new boundary at a time when the intellectual impact of Leibniz and Wolff’s tradition on Germany was being felt deeply. According to Leibniz and Wolff, sensible knowledge is identified as blurry and misleading. Baumgarten’s statement places more importance on sensible knowledge. For Baumgarten sensible knowledge should also be a branch of science - like logic. This argument clearly explains why Baumgarten is considered ‘the father of aesthetics” in the history of philosophy. Baumgarten –in contrast to Leibniz and Wolff – states that sensations presented as low, dark, blurry and misleading can also have their own perfection. Considering that sensible knowledge should be addressed as systematic knowledge - just like logical knowledge - he puts aesthetics into the service of philosophy as the science of sensible knowledge. Furthermore, he states that sensible knowledge –which he described as the material of the soul’s dark side- can be perfect by itself and he defines this condition as ‘beautiful’. Baumgarten’s intention is to make room for aesthetics in history of philosophy with epistemological concern. According to Baumgarten, inexplicit, confusing or dark representations and similar elements in the soul are sensible representations. Thus the faculty of knowledge - that is uncertain and based on sensations - is called the inferior faculty of knowledge and this faculty is presented in the soul. 

In Baumgarten’s work Metaphysica, inferior cognitive faculties are called analogon rationis. According to him, inferior cognitive faculties can be classified as below: 

1. The inferior faculty - for knowing the correspondences of things

2. The inferior faculty - for knowing the differences of things

3. Sensitive memory

4. The faculty of invention

5. The faculty of judging

6. The expectation of similar cases

7. The sensitive faculty of characterization

For Baumgarten, inferior cognitive faculties work in a similar way to superior cognitive faculties. In other words aesthetics/inferior cognitive faculties such as the science of blurry, uncertain and dark perceptions and sensible knowledge, aim to work in an analogous way to the logic/superior cognitive faculties which make up the science of certain and clear truth. Inferior cognitive faculties cannot categorize or distinguish representations from each other like understanding or reason. They (analogon rationis) can only correlate between those representations analogous to reason. While reason correlates with concepts, analogon rationis correlates with aisthesis. These analogies between aesthetics and logic; and reason and analogon rationis provide this result: aesthetics as the sensible representation of logical perfection. Even though Baumgarten’s aesthetics have appeared with epistemological determinations and intentions, it was possible to evolve the ‘aesthetics – beautiful conception’ through ‘the sensible perfection as beautiful’. The most unique part of his comprehension is his statement that sensible knowledge can have its own perfection even though he might be identified as a member of the rationalist tradition. After him, many have walked through the door that he has opened and have adopted his way of thinking. The concept of ‘beautiful’ is defined in Metaphysica as the perfection (§662) of the phenomenon and the pleasure from the perception of perfection. In Aesthetica, it is referred to as the science (§14) of sensible knowledge. Between the definitions given in each work, the only difference stems from Baumgarten’s point of view. While in Metaphysica his interest is theoretical and related to understanding what we know about sensations, in Aesthetica his interest is practical and concerns how we can make sensations perfect. However, Baumgarten has never wished to separate these two views on beautiful. His general approach is the independence of the structures of perfection: the perception of perfection in the object enables the perfection of sensible comprehension, and the highest appearance and expression of this is the pleasure felt by the subject. In summary, Baumgarten’s philosophy is based on establishing the philosophical aesthetics as the science of sensible knowledge. In his works Meditationes philosophicae de nonnullis ad poema pertinentibus, Metaphysica, and Aesthetica, his consistency to fulfill this aim can be clearly observed. However, there is one aspect which should not be overlooked: even though his approach towards creating an independent area within philosophy might be called revolutionary, this independent area still depends on logic to keep its existence.