aware of this is the first step towards enlightenment. We must try to
distinguish what we want of art from what we want of other things,
such as science or morality; for something unique we must desire from
anything of permanent value in our life. In the next place we should
come to see that we cannot want incompatible things; that, for example,
we cannot want art to hold the mirror up to life and, at the same time,
to represent life as conforming to our private prejudices; or want a
picture to have expressive and harmonious colors and look exactly like
a real landscape; or long for a poetry that would be music or a
sculpture that would be pictorial. Finally, we must make sure that our
interpretation of the aesthetic purpose is representative of the actual
fullness and manysidedness of it; we should observe, for example, that
sensuous pleasure is not all that we seek from art; that truth of some
kind we seek besides; and yet that in some sort of union we want both.

This clearing up can be accomplished only in closest touch with the
actual experience of beauty; it must be performed upon our working
preferences and judgments. It must be an interpretation of the actual
history of art. There is no a priori method of establishing aesthetic
standards. Just as no one can discover his life purpose apart from the
process of living, or the purpose of another except through sympathy;
so no one can know the meaning of art except through creating and
enjoying and entering into the aesthetic life of other artists and art
lovers.

This so-called normative--perhaps better, critical--moment in aesthetics
introduces an inevitable personal element into every discussion of the
subject. Even as every artist seeks to convince his public that what
he offers is beautiful, so every philosopher of art undertakes to
persuade of the validity of his own preferences. I would not make any