The Tasks of Aesthetics

Abstract

In the course of my teaching life I have approached the problems of aesthetics in varying ways according to the changing fashions of discussion. I have, however, found no reason to change my opinion as to what were the problems and their importance, though they may be thought of now as outmoded. There are fashions in ways of thinking as there are in dress; and just as one may hang on to a favorite frock knowing that in time it will become fashionable again, so one may preserve one’s way of thinking knowing that it will reappear later as “the thing.” Nevertheless I feel it incumbent on me to present some kind of justification, even an “apology,” for calling on my readers to consider with me such problems as the logic of the judgment of taste, its objectivity, and other such topics that aestheticians today seem to find wearisome in the extreme. I am hoping to engage your interest and cooperation in my enterprise, which I think a worthy one, not in the sense that I have worthily carried it out, but in the sense that it was worth a serious attempt.