Abstract
THE IDEAL OBSERVER theory has been fruitful in ethics, but has not been given a fair hearing in aesthetics. Philip Hobsbaum recently described the theory in a classification of aesthetic theories as subjectivist and relativistic.1 But as originally set forth by Roderick Firth, the theory was absolutist and non-relativistic.2 Hobsbaum seems to have missed the point entirely. John Hospers did somewhat better,3 but seems to this writer to have left some very interesting philosophical problems untouched. In what follows, I shall set forth the Ideal Observer theory as clearly as possible, and then try to see what problems are involved in transferring the theory to aesthetics. I shall use as my principal sources the original paper by Firth and the Hospers paper. The Ideal Observer theory was set forth by its author to explain what we mean when we say something is good, e.g., that some action is morally good or right. In explaining his theory, Firth wrote:
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