1. Term
The term “criticism” (from Gk. kritikos, deriving from krinō, “discern; divide”) already in Plato (427–347 b.c.; Platonism) and Aristotle (384–322 b.c.; Aristotelianism) had the two senses that it still bears today: the ability to make logical and legal judgments, and the art of rhetoric and philosophy. These two senses constitute the formal meaning. In the modern era the term also has a substantive meaning of its own.
2. Early History
In antiquity the Romans …