Abstract

The Philosophy of Aesthetics

The article discusses the book "Aesthetic Judgment," by D.W. Prall. Prall has identified beauty in the primary sense with the delightfulness of the sensuous surface of the world in the book. Despite limitation in his underlying philosophy, Prall's discussions are valuable throughout. The plan of the book is admirable. It begins with a few introductory chapters devoted to the definition and illustration of beauty, including a novel chapter on the "Aesthetic Surface of Primitive Life," it then proceeds to an account of elements and types of order, of sound, color, space and time, which constitute materials and possibilities of aesthetic surface, after which, come chapters on fine arts and a final philosophical chapter on "Aesthetic Judgment and Knowledge in General."