 It’s a problematic view, however, and one somewhat belied by Beardsley’s own philosophic practice. Questions like, What sort of being or existence do works of art have?—a question of ontology, and one of Beardsley’s questions—arise from the statements of art critics only in that critics use the term ’work of art’ and, with that concept available, inquiry into the ontological status of the objects that answer to it is then possible. But the question isn’t itself one that arises out of, or concerns the nature and basis of, critical practice, at least not in any significant sense of the term. For one thing, others besides critics use the term “work of art”—art dealers and art suppliers, for example—so the case could just as easily be made that the ontological question arises out of, and concerns the nature and basis of, art dealership or art supply-manship. A related point is that the same argument applies outside the arts. Farmers and grocers speak of apples, and unless we had some such term as “apple”, the question, What sort of being or existence do apples have?—again, a question of ontology—couldn’t be posed. It isn’t a question that arises out of the cultivation or sale of apples, however—not in any very direct or meaningful way—nor is it one that concerns the nature and basis of apple farming or running a supermarket. Critics, like farmers and art suppliers, do very well without ontological inquiries; ontological questions don’t lurk in the background, waiting to be asked. In short, Beardsley’s meta-philosophical view that aesthetics is meta-criticism is underdetermined by the reasons that he advances for it, inaccurate or correct only if the term “meta-criticism” is stretched beyond its usual bounds, and belied to some extent by Beardsley’s own philosophic practice. All of that is not to deny, however, that a great deal of aesthetics can be profitably viewed as meta-critical, as a critical examination and evaluation of the nature and basis of at least some of the statements that art critics make, at least if art critics are conceived broadly enough to include almost everyone who has ever stood before a painting, listened to a piece of music, or read a novel, and then ventured a judgment about it.