Hume

Of the Standard of Taste

Portrait of David Hume Esq.

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

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

• 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”