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Hume
Of the Standard of Taste
Portrait of David Hume Esq.
Career
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1711-1776, educated in Edinburgh
Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40)
Essays Moral Political and Literary (1751)
Enquiry concerning Human Understanding
(1748)
• Dialogues concerning Natural Religion
(1779)
• Of the Standard of Taste (1757)
Of the Standard of Taste
• Hume’s best known treatise on aesthetics
• Taste was a fashionable subject in the 18th
century
• The idea of an inner sense
• Tries to resolve the contradiction between
subjectivity and objectivity in judgements
of taste
The problem
• There is no standard of taste (individuality)
• Taste concerns our sentiments, not the
intrinsic nature of the object
• No one can be wrong in matters of taste
• Yet some people are better judges in matters
of art than others and some works more
recognised than others
• There is a standard of taste (authority)
The essay
• Relativity of taste
– Taste and opinion
– Taste and moral sentiments
• Two views of taste
– A species of philosophy vs. Common sense
• Rules derived from experience
• Conditions of proper appreciation
• Two sources of variation
Relativity (variety) of taste
• Taste and opinion
• Taste and morality
Two views of taste
• A species of philosophy
• Common sense
A species of philosophy
• Judgement (intellect, reason)
• Sentiment (feeling, instinct)
Difference
• Opinions refer to matters of fact
• Sentiments refer to themselves
• Only one opinion may be right
• All sentiments are right
Subjectivity of aesthetic
judgements
When I say: How this is beautiful!
I mean: I have a certain feeling!
The judgement is not about anything in the
object but about my own inner state of mind
Why are sentiments right?
• They do not represent what is really in the
object
• They mark a certain relation between the
object and the mind
• Example: Colours
Common sense
• Some authors are better than others
• Some critics are better than others
Explanation
• The aesthetic qualities are derived from
qualities in the objects
• Intrinsic qualities in the objects cause a
certain feeling in the subject
• But the aesthetic qualities are not in the
object
• Everything depends upon the reception
Hume’s position
• Judgements of taste are subjective
– Describe the emotional attitude of the
individual
– Do not describe real qualities of things
• And based on experience
– Not on any a-priori rules or principles
– But experience can reveal uniformities
Where do standards come from?
• Experience reveals certain rules of art
• General conformity in what has pleased
mankind in all ages and countries
• Not agreement on everything
• Depends on conditions of appreciation
Conditions of appreciation
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Delicacy (sensitivity)
Practice (experience)
Comparison (knowledge)
Absence of prejudice (open-mindedness)
Good sense (reason)
Sensitivity
• So fine that nothing is left
• So exact that each detail is included
Experience and knowledge
• Each work must be considered more than
once
• From different points of view
• Avoid rashness
• Evaluate the comparative value of works
Open-mindedness
• Nothing must disturb the attention to the
work itself
• The work must be observed on its own
premisses
• From the point of view which suits it best
Reason
• Prevents the effect of prejudice
• Considers the structure of the work
– (harmony and unity of the whole)
• Discovers the purpose of the work of art
– (if and how it achieves that purpose)
Variation
• Personality and temperement
• Cultural and historical context
Hume’s paradox
• Good art is the one that good critics
estimate to be good
• A good critic is one who can appreciate
good art
Kant on the same subject
• Subjective
• Universal
• Disinterested pleasure
– Not from: Gratification
– Not from: Purpose
– Not from: Moral laudability
Bourdieu on taste
• Socially acquiered (habitus) not natural
• Serves as mark of “distinction”