Hume

Hume discusses the notion of a standard of taste. Taste being something that is shared between all men. Hume believes that all sentiments are accurate and unique, but that at their base they imply the same taste. I do not agree that everyone has the same taste. I think that some people are drawn to certain types of artwork that others are not. Taste varies based on many aspects of your lifestyle, including religion, education, and family life. However, I do think that being raised in a similar culture meshes our tastes to a degree.

I think that both paintings on the UH 440 blog have their own unique qualities that make them intriguing. I would say that they are both tasteful to me because they do not make me want to close out of the page. However, they may represent something that could be distasteful to some people. The paintings could represent the idea of evolution and man’s development from monkeys. To a person with exclusive religious convictions, these paintings might be really distasteful.

We do not know what the artist’s intent was by just looking at the paintings and therefore, to some philosophers, we cannot truly analyze the artwork, but to others, we just must possess the proper qualities. Hume discusses the notion of the perfect art critic. He describes them as being delicate, practiced, comparative, free of prejudice, and in possession of good will. If we do not all possess theses qualities, then does our opinion matter? Does our definition of taste matter? And if one person has the qualities listed above, then wouldn’t they be more qualified to judge a piece of art, and therefore their taste would be more correct.

But if we argue that all men have the same root taste, then aren’t we degrading the role of the perfect critic? Or is Hume simply stating that we have the same taste, but the art critic is the only one who knows how to apply the true meaning?

Hume also says that a true art critic is hard to find, but once you find one they are easy to distinguish. This makes me question Hume because we, as a class, have not yet identified a philosopher that we have deemed the perfect critic. Could it be that many people possess qualities of a critic and together, through a content analysis of their combined reviews, we could truly determine the quality of a piece of artwork; and in doing so use all of our person specific tastes to agree upon a “standard?”