No, we must
employ a different method of investigation--the Socratic method of
self-scrutiny, the conscious attempt to become clear and consistent
about our own purposes, the probing and straightening of our aesthetic
consciences. Instead of accepting our immediate feelings and judgments,
we should become critical towards them and ask ourselves, What do we
really seek in art and in life which, when found, we call beautiful?
Of course, in order to answer this question we cannot rely on an
examination of our own preferences in isolation from those of our
fellow-men. Here, as everywhere, our purposes are an outgrowth of the
inherited past and are developed in imitation of, or in rivalry with,
those of other men. The problem is one of interpreting the meaning of
art in the system of culture of which our own minds are a part.
Nevertheless, the personal problem remains. Aesthetic value is
emphatically personal; it must be felt as one's own. If I accept the
standards of my race and age, I do so because I find them to be an
expression of my own aesthetic will. In the end, my own will to beauty
must be cleared up; its darkly functioning goals must be brought to
light.
Now, unless we have thought much about the matter or are gifted with
unusual native taste, we shall find that our aesthetic intentions are
confused, contradictory, and entangled with other purposes. To become
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.
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