hume of the standard of taste. portrait of david hume esq
Post on 22-Dec-2015
223 Views
Preview:
TRANSCRIPT
Career
• 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
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
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
• Delicacy (sensitivity)
• Practice (experience)
• Comparison (knowledge)
• Absence of prejudice (open-mindedness)
• Good sense (reason)
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)
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
top related