Home The Nature and Objective of Aesthetics The Possibility of a Definition of Beauty and Art The Value of a Definition of Beauty What Aesthetics Is The Material For a Definition Art and the Artist The Art Work The Art Work in the Making The Creative Mind Art and the Artist Art and the Layman The Experience of Beauty Beauty in Music Painting Poetry	WHAT AESTHETICS IS Let us now our findings and see what aesthetics is. We have found that a definition of beauty and art is not only possible, but also valuable. It is possible because the aesthetician draws a clear distinction between the experience of beauty and the object of beauty. AEsthetics does not pretend to give a definition of an object of beauty, which would imply that any object that would comply with the specifications of the definition would be beautiful to any person coming in contact with it. But it does seek a definition of the art work as a product of a creative mind. Every product of man has a cause, something that instigated it, and involves a process in its making. We can therefore ask of any art work what it is that started it, what processes were involved in its production, and how it came about being what it is. Professor John L. Lowes has given us an excellent example of the value of such an investigation in his study of the origin and growth of two poems of Coleridge. And we can do the same for art as a whole. We can ask what is the art impulse, the creative urge, what are the steps in the creative process, and from the data we can formulate a statement regarding the nature of art in general. Such a statement regarding art will give us a clue for a definition of the experience of beauty. And such a definition is valuable and desirable because it makes us more intelligent about the world of art and the artist, although it may not bring us any closer to an appreciation of a specific art work. To be intelligent about science, philosophy, or religion does not mean that we will be scientists, philosophers, or become religious. An intelligent conception of the nature of science and scientific method will not necessarily lead to an understanding or appreciation of the theory of relativity or the electron theory. But it will lead to a respect for science, the scientist, and scientific ideas. And a definition of beauty and art will do the same for art, the artist, and art problems. For without understanding we gibber, confuse counsel with words without knowledge, since our words are but sound and fury signifying nothing. Georges Rouault