Alexander Baumgarten was born in Berlin in 1714 and began his primary education there. After the death first of his mother (when he was three) and then of his father (when he was seven), he was raised by his grandmother for several years and taught by a private tutor (financed by a family friend). In 1727 he moved to Halle to attend the preparatory Latin school of Francke's so-called Waisenhaus (orphanage), where he proved to be an exceptionally gifted student in both artistic and academic subjects. At the university in Halle, he enrolled in theology and ancient philology, studying Wolffian philosophy privately as well since it was still forbidden to teach Wolffian philosophy at the university. After graduating with a master's degree in 1735, Baumgarten began teaching in Halle as a private lecturer. He was promoted to extraordinary professor there in 1737. In 1740, at least in part because of his financial situation, he accepted an ordinary professorship at Frankfurt an der Oder (which others had turned down), where he remained until his death in 1762.

Baumgarten published a wide range of philosophical works during his career: Meditationes philosophicae de nonullis ad poema pertinentibus (Philosophical Meditations on Poetry) in 1735, Metaphysica (Metaphysics) in 1739, Ethica philosophica (Philosophical Ethics) in 1740, Part One of Aesthetica (Aesthetics) in 1750, Part Two of Aesthetica in 1758, Initia philosophiae practicae primae (Introduction to First Practical Philosophy) in 1760, and Acroasis logica in Christianum L. B. Wolff (Lectures According to Christian Wolff's Logic) in 1761.