Page:Philosophical Review Volume 14.djvu/34

18 satisfactorily answered, if the system-maker is to find acceptance of his view. And in the attempt to answer this and kindred questions, the æsthetician is not without hope that no inconsiderable light may be thrown by the philosopher upon the solution of the problems of Æsthetics itself. Nor are the problems of Æsthetics without relation to pure Metaphysics. The existence of æsthetic standards must be considered by the metaphysician; and these standards, with those of Logic and Ethics, must be treated by him as data for the study of ontological problems.

But beyond this, Æsthetics cries out for special aid from the ontologist. "What," he asks, "is the significance of our standards of æsthetic appreciation? What the inner nature of that which we call the real of beauty? What its relation with the real of goodness and the real of truth?" From a practical standpoint, this last mentioned question is of special import at this time. For the world of art has for centuries been torn asunder by the contention of the æsthetic realists and their opponents.

That, in its real essence, beauty is truth, and truth beauty, is a claim which has often been, and is still, heard; and it is a claim which must finally be adjudicated by the metaphysician who deals with the nature of reality.

The practical importance of the solution of this problem is brought home forcibly to those who, like myself, seem to see marked æsthetic deterioration in the work of those artists who have been led to listen to the claims of æsthetic realism, who learn to strive for the expression of truth, thinking thus certainly to gain beauty. That many great artists have announced themselves as æsthetic realists shows how powerfully the claims of the doctrine appeal to them. But one who studies the artistic work of Leonardo, for instance, cannot but believe that he was a great artist notwithstanding his theoretical belief, and cannot but believe that all others of his way of thinking, so far as they are artists, are such because in them genius has overridden their dogmatic thought.

It is clearly not without significance that the realm of values