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 aesthetic 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 aesthetic 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
aesthetics to deal with groups of objects that lie within its province,
rather than directly with its concepts and principles. The first special
treatise on aesthetics, 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.]

Sect. 80. _Ethics_, the oldest and most popular of the normative
sciences, _is the formulation, as independently as possible of special
subject-matter, of that which conditions goodness of conduct_. Ethics is
commonly concerned with goodness only in so far as it is predicated of
conduct, or of character, which is a more or less permanent disposition
to conduct. Since conduct, in so far as good, is said to constitute
moral goodness, ethics may be defined as the formulation of the general
principles of _morality_. The principles so formulated would be those
virtually employed to _justify_ conduct, or to disprove the imputation
of immorality.

[Sidenote: Conceptions of the Good. Hedonism.]

Sect. 81. The student of this science is confronted with a very
considerable diversity of met