 The second route is the one Beardsley takes in Aesthetics. Schematically, an aesthetic object is: a visual perceptual object that isn’t in the class of things that plastic forks, crumpled pieces of paper, and so on are in; or an auditory perceptual object that isn’t in the class of objects that scratches, noises, and so on are in; etc. This is more the beginnings of an outline of an approach to a definition than the beginnings of a definition itself—something Beardsley realizes—and it has problems of its own. The interesting question, however, isn’t what those problems are or the ultimate success or failure of this “divide and conquer” approach, but why he adopted it in the first place, and why he later abandoned it.