By one of the ironic perversities that often attend the course of affairs the existence of the works of art upon which formation of aesthetic theory depends has become an obstruction to theory about them For one reason these works are products that exist externally and physically In common conception the work of art is often identified with the building book painting or statue in its existence apart from human experience Since the actual work of art is what the product does with and in experience the result is not favourable to understanding In addition the very perfection of some of these products the prestige they possess because of a long history of unquestioned admiration creates conventions that get in the way of fresh insight When an art product once attains classic status it somehow becomes isolated from the human conditions under which it was brought into being and from the human consequences it engenders in actual life experience