ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns Croce's claim to have made a substantial contribution to aesthetics, and not with the relation of his work on this subject to the philosophical system to which it belongs. It believes that at almost every moment of people's waking lives and in the dreams of sleep, in all perception or imagined perception whatever they are in direct contact with the beautiful. The chapter also believes that if 'intuition' is really 'lyricism', the artistic representation of emotion and passion, it cannot also be the perceptual stage in the cognitive process; there is here a striking and unmistakable contradiction. It accepts gratefully Hedonists original contribution to the general psychology of artistic creation and appreciation. The chapter realizes that the sport of animals and small children is by no means a mere release of superfluous energy, being as a rule propaedeutic in function, a purely instinctive preparation for the most arduous tasks of maturity.
