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Notes pretty subtle aesthetic sense. In his essay “Of the Standard of Taste” (1757) he advances the claim
that evaluating art should not be regarded as arbitrary and entirely relativist. Hume composed
this essay (the last before his death) in order to meet the demand of his publisher who needed
about 20 pages to fill in the gap that emerged after two other (possibly too “atheistic”) essays were
removed from the planned collection. The essay is “derivative” as it heavily depends on some
French and British authors of the time but it still represents an original piece, probably the most
important work in Aesthetics before Kant.
Although an “opportunistic” product of Hume’s literary activity, the essay is a masterpiece of
elegance and style. Its polished and subtle manner of exposition proves, however, to be very
deceptive. It creates the impression that the argumentation flows smoothly and clearly from the
beginning to the end whereas in reality it abounds with reversals and almost all provided
explanations raise more questions than they manage to answer. A careful student should be
mindful of many snares intentionally or unintentionally laid down throughout the course of
Hume’s analysis.
Variety of Taste: In keeping with his empiricist epistemology Hume starts with a factual statement
about the existing variety of taste and opinion. He focuses on the former as the latter proves to be
less egregious.
The variety of human taste stretches over different individuals (even siblings may have different
taste), across different cultures and throughout different historical periods.
Hume was more interested in art criticism (judging art) than in the philosophy of art as an effort
to explain the essence of art. He was particularly intrigued by the question whether our judgments
on art are subjective and relativist or objective and universalizable. This explains why he talks
about taste (the receptive side) rather than about the artwork itself (the creative side). For Hume,
taste denotes the capacity to respond with approbation or disapprobation to external stimuli. If
the stimulus is an artistic one the ensuing taste should be understood as the “refined ability to
perceive quality in any artwork”. This ability corresponds, roughly speaking, to what we would
call “aesthetic experience” in general (Hume didn’t use the word Aesthetics yet). If likes and
dislikes are expressed in value judgments we regard them as judgments of taste. Whether there is
a standard of taste is an open issue that allows arguing for both sides (the debate parallels somewhat
the debate about the relativity of moral norms).
Relativity
People react to different taste with surprise and mistrust. The label (epithet) “barbarous” (supposedly
denoting the low taste or the lack of taste) is culturally conditioned. It does not tell us anything
universally valid (except that it is used with the same arrogance by different people for contrary
things). It cannot serve as the criterion of taste since it simply reflects our preference for our taste.
It is an expression of conceit.
The differences in aesthetic taste are too obvious and great to be denied. Hume contends that they
are in fact greater than they appear. The true extent of the differences is covered by linguistic
generalities that indicate universal approval or disapproval. But these generalities conceal the
differences in particulars. In almost all cultures there is a consensus in evaluating positively
certain epithets. For instance

Almost all Hume’s examples in this essay are taken from one single art - literature. We
wish he could have provided some non-literary examples as well but this preference for
literary arts was the signature of the time.

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