Abstract
David Hume’s essay “Of the Standard of Taste” (1757)—which represents a major step towards clarifying eighteenth-century philosophy’s dawning aesthetics in terms of taste—also relates closely to literal, physical taste. From the analogy between gustatory and critical taste, Hume, apt at judging works of art, puts together a contradictory argument of subjectivism (taste is individual and varies from person to person) and the normativity of common sense (the test of time shows that some works of art are better than others). However, a careful reading of the text unveils a way of appealing to art criticism as a vital component in edifying a philosophically more solid standard of taste. Hume’s emphatic references to a requisite “delicacy” complicate the picture, for it is not clear what this delicacy is, but a close inspection of how Hume frames the criterion of delicacy by means of “practice” and the absence of “prejudice” might perhaps challenge us to address issues of contemporary art.
Highlights
David Hume’s essay “Of the Standard of Taste” (1757)—which represents a major step towards clarifying eighteenth-century philosophy’s dawning aesthetics in terms of taste— relates closely to literal, physical taste
From the analogy between gustatory and critical taste, Hume, apt at judging works of art, puts together a contradictory argument of subjectivism and the normativity of common sense
Carolyn Korsmeyer rightly notes that Hume: “takes the analogy between literal taste and a higher aesthetic taste more seriously than those who follow him.”[1]. Hume’s text has become an irrefutable topos of eighteenth-century philosophical use of taste, and its famous opening sentence—faithful to Hume’s vigorous and elegant prose— perfectly suits his empiricist approach to philosophy: “The great variety of Taste, as well as of opinion, which prevails in the world, is too obvious not to have fallen under every one’s observation.”[2]
Summary
David Hume’s essay “Of the Standard of Taste” (1757)—which represents a major step towards clarifying eighteenth-century philosophy’s dawning aesthetics in terms of taste— relates closely to literal, physical taste. The common sense at stake in a unanimity of appreciation achieved through reference to masterful works like Milton’s points to what we, in a modern philosophical vocabulary, could translate as a culturally intersubjective pragmatic process of selection by means of which experts, art critics, art amateurs and ordinary people end up joining sharing each other’s tastes.
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