or some fifteen years,” declared L. Ron Hubbard in a crucial essay from 1965, “I have been studying, amongst other branches of philosophy, the subject
of ART.”

     His reasons were twofold. First and foremost, as he explained, “Art is the least codified of human endeavors and the most misunderstood.” Even its very definition, he noted, was still subject to intense debate. Thus, on a purely academic level, he wished to examine the subject in its broadest and most essential terms, and thereby resolve questions philosophers and critics have long pondered, including that most basic question of all, “What is Art?”