ABSTRACT
The task of criticism is the reconstruction of the creative process, where the creative process must in turn be thought of as something not stopping short of, but terminating on, the work of art itself. To the view advanced, that criticism is retrieval, several objections are raised. The first objection is that, by and large, this view makes criticism impossible. A second objection to the retrieval view of criticism goes deeper in that it concentrates upon the view itself and not merely upon its consequences. This objection to the retrieval view shows itself vulnerable on a number of counts. Crucially the view that criticism is scrutiny is seriously under-defined until an answer is given to the question, Scrutiny by whom. There are a number of possible definitions, for each of which the appeal of the scrutiny view, as well as its right to go by that name, will vary.
