ABSTRACT
The metaphysical approach is distinguished by always answering the question of what a topic is by turning directly to given reality as its standard of truth. The metaphysical approach characteristically attempts to conceive the whole of art in terms of the categories appropriate to artifacts and their production and evaluation. The success or failure of metaphysical aesthetics will thus largely rest on whether such categories are sufficient for grasping what is unique to art. If the project of metaphysical aesthetics is not to be abandoned, the distinctive aspects of art must somehow be captured without transcending the nature of artifacts and artisan production. In proceeding from craft to edifying imitation, metaphysical aesthetics seems to have met success, constructing a coherent account of the work of art, art criticism, and artistic production. The unity of aesthetic form is the fatal stumbling block at which metaphysical aesthetics arrives, exploding the limits of its own theoretical paradigm.
