“Taste” as an aesthetic category in moralistic and philosophical literature of the XVII century

Abstract

This article analyzes the emergence of the aesthetic category of taste, which dates back to 1620s–1630s, as well as the factors of its emergence. The author correlates the aesthetic category of “taste” with one of the categories of gallant aesthetics “fineness”, which becomes the key requirement for the behavioral pattern of a secular person, as well as for the lifestyle of French aristocracy of the XVII century overall, emphasizing the social conditionality of the concept of taste. From the sphere of secular communication and everyday life, the categories of “fineness” and “fined taste” flow into the sphere of art, which unfolds the discussion on the subjectivity of taste and the tyranny of rules. The problem of taste remains relevant, as we see the blending of edges of this concept, denial of the hierarchy of aesthetic values in modern art. The question of the development of criteria for assessing the artworks is still as urgent as in the XVII century. At the same time, it is impossible to speak of the development and transformation of the aesthetic category of “taste” if the origins of its emergence are unfathomable. The dispute around the crucial for aesthetics dichotomy “taste” and “rules” has blazed up in France in the late XVII century. In this discussion, “fine taste” is opposed not to the concepts of “no taste” or “bad taste”, they are analogous to taste since being subjective. The concept of “taste” was opposed to the rule, which instigated the dispute of the aesthetic thought of the XVII century.