A guest comment alerted me to the fact that I had missed an entry from my Aesthetic Theory lexicon! αρχαί = origin "In those studies devoted to the aesthetic αρχαί, positivistic sampling of material and such speculation as is otherwise disdained by the sciences flourish wildly alongside each other" (Adorno, Theodor W. Aesthetic Theory. Edited by Gretel Adorno and Rolf Tiedemann. Translated by Robert Hullot-Kentor. London: Continuum, 2004. p.