Aesthetics is broader in scope than the philosophy of art, which comprises one of its branches.【21】It deals not only with the nature and value of the arts but also with responses to natural objects that find expressions in the language of the beautiful and the ugly.【22】A problem is encountered in the outset, however, for terms such as beautiful and ugly seem too vague in their application.【23】Almost anything might be seen as beautiful by someone or from some point of view; and different people apply the word to quite disparate objects for reasons that often seem having little or nothing in common.【24】It may be that there is some single underlying believe that motivates all of their judgments.【25】It may also be, however, that the term beautiful has no sense except as the expression of an attitude, which is in return attached by different people to quite different state of affairs.
【26】Moreover, in spite of the emphasis lay by philosophers on the terms beautiful and ugly, it is far from evident that they are the most important or most useful either in the discussion and criticism of art or in the description of that which appeals to us in nature.【27】Conveying what is significant in a poem, we might use such terms as ironical, moving, expressive, balanced, and harmonious.【28】Likewise, in describing a favorite stretch of countryside, we may find more useful for peaceful, soft, atmospheric, harsh, and evocative, than for beautiful.【29】The least that should be said is that beautiful belongs to a class of terms from that it has been chosen as much for convenience' sake as for any other things.【30】After all, then, how should a philosopher study in order to understand such idea as beauty and taste？
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