[Sidenote: Æsthetics Deals with the Most General Conditions of Beauty. Subjectivistic and Formalistic Tendencies.]
§ 79. _Æsthetics is the formulation, as independently as possible of special subject-matter, of that which conditions beauty._ As logic commonly refers to a judgment of truth, so æsthetics at any rate _refers_ to a judgment implied in appreciation. But while it is generally admitted that truth itself is by no means limited to the form of the judgment, the contrary is frequently maintained with reference to beauty. The aphorism, _De gustibus non est disputandum_, expresses a common opinion to the effect that beauty is not a property belonging to the object of which it is predicated, but a property generated by the appreciative consciousness. According to this opinion there can be no beauty except in the case of an object's presence in an individual experience. Investigators must of necessity refuse to leave individual caprice in complete possession of the field, but they have in many cases occupied themselves entirely with the _state of æsthetic enjoyment_ in the hope of discovering its constant factors. The opposing tendency defines certain _formal characters which the beautiful object must possess_. Evidently the latter school will attribute a more profound philosophical importance to the conception of beauty, since for them it is a principle that obtains in the world of being. This was the first notable contention, that of Plato. But even with the emphasis laid upon the subjective aspect of the æsthetic experience, great metaphysical importance may be attached to it, where, as in the case of the German Romanticists, reality is deliberately construed as a spiritual life which is to be appreciated rather than understood.
As in the case of logic, a strong impulse has manifested itself in æsthetics to deal with groups of objects that lie within its province, rather than directly with its concepts and principles. The first special treatise on æsthetics, the "Poetics" of Aristotle, belongs to this type of inquiry, as does all criticism of art in so far as it aims at the formulation of general principles.
[Sidenote: Ethics Deals with the Most General Conditions of Moral Goodness.]