How did Hume reconcile the idea of a universal Standard of Taste with Essay

How did Hume reconcile the idea of a universal Standard of Taste with the diversity of actual taste that he observes What objec - Essay Example Since people have different ways of appreciating the beauty of visual arts, it is necessary on the part of the acedemic world to take a closer look on how â€Å"taste† can affect how each person will perceive the quality of visual arts. David Hume is one of the famous philosophers of Enlightenment1, 2. Specifically Hume has a unique way of expressing his own opinion with regards to the universal standard of taste. To give the readers a better understanding of this subject matter, this study will first discuss Hume’s idea with regards to the standard of taste. After analyzing how Hume was able to reconcile the idea of a universal standard of taste with the diversity of actual taste that he observed, this study will identify and thoroughly discussed several objections which may arise out of his arguments. Hume’s Idea with Regards to the Standard of Taste The standard of taste is heavily based on people’s nature. Given that a group of people share the same in terests, it means that they have the same standard of taste. When it comes to artworks, Hume argued that there will always be a group of people who will be contented and not contented with the quality of artwork they see in front of them and that only time can really tell whether or not the piece of artwork would still outstand other similar types of artistic crafts3, 4. In Hume’s writings on the standard of taste, he tackled the issue with regards to the essential differences between artistic â€Å"facts† and â€Å"artistic sentiments†5, 6, 7 In line with this, Hume mentioned that judgement based on sentiments does not contain the truth behind the real value of artworks. Given that each person’s artistic taste is totally different from that of another person, Hume’s argument that ‘judgement based on sentiments does not contain the truth behind the real value of artworks’ seems to be based on facts8. Since people’s judgement on artworks are mostly â€Å"subjective’ and based on â€Å"pleasure†9, 10, Hume took the position that most of the judgements based on taste are not only illogical but also ridiculous11, 12. According to Hume, the two (2) main sources of such sentiment is highly based on either the personal disposition of each person or the moral differences which may arise out of each person’s cultural differences13, 14. In line with this, Hume’s concept of personal disposition in the standard of taste means that each individual has their own taste or preferences when it comes to artistic works. On the other hand, Hume’s idea of moral differences in the standard of taste means that the moral beliefs of each person can significantly affect their aesthetic subjectivism when it comes to the process of judging a piece of artwork. With regards to the cultural differences of each person, Hume mentioned that each type of culture will have a unique set of customs that can affect the way people perceive the same piece of artwork15. For this reason, the presence of cultural differences alone should be considered as one of the most significant factor that can make a highly competitive judge to be prejudice when it comes to judging a good piece of artwork16. On top of these two (2) major factors that could affect each person’s judgement based on sentiments, Hume mentioned that each piece of artwork has its own unique beauty that can easily attract a group of people17, 18, 19. There are quite a lot of factors that can affect a person’