"I introduce here a slight observation which I shall call 'philo-
sophical,' meaning simply that we could do without it." Paul Valéry's
remark captures the spirit of the later Wittgenstein which has dominated
the Anglo-American approach to philosophical aesthetics. It expresses
also the feeling of the average thoughtful reader who is not preoccupied
with puzzling philosophical questions of the more traditional sort. Such
people will be happier when they get to the discussion of the materials
and media of art in the second chapter, and from there on to the end.
But the reader who exposes himself to the preceding "philosophical"
considerations will not find them so "slight" or dispensable when he
moves on to the subsequent closer examination of the arts and the logic
of talk about them. He will prize the philosophical considerations for
the advantage they give him as a philosopher of art, even in his intimate
relation to this or that work of art. It is the aim of this book in philosophy
of art to introduce the reader to the subject in this advantageous way,
illuminating instead of disrupting his rapport with art--perhaps even
assisting him into such a relation if he was at a loss before.

VIRGIL C. ALDRICH

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