The "Cognition of the Literary Work of Art" (1937; 1968) by Roman Ingarden (1893-1970), the renowned Polish philosopher and pupil of Husserl, combines the epistemological and the ontological perspective in a philosophically original manner. In philosophical and literary terms it represents an advance on the famous "Literary Work of Art" (1931) by the same author. The response to the moral holocaust of the Second World War takes the form of an increased insistence on the preservation of traditional values and an attempt to provide a philosophical legitimation of aesthetic delight in the literary artwork.