On the Old Saw “I know nothing about art but I know what I like"

Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 68 (2):131-141 (2010)
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Abstract

The theory of taste faces a neglected epistemological problem. The cultivation of taste is functionally dependent upon self-knowledge of aesthetic satisfaction and its causes, in other words, knowing what we like and why. However, reservations about the reliability of our knowledge of our responses, commonplace in social psychology and the philosophy of mind, pose serious obstacles to the theory of taste. I argue for a weak fallibilism with respect to introspective beliefs about aesthetic experience. I call for a naturalistic approach to the theory of taste that accounts for the unreliability of aesthetic self-knowledge

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Kevin Melchionne
State University of New York, Stony Brook

Citations of this work

Aesthetic Hedonism and Its Critics.Servaas Van der Berg - 2020 - Philosophy Compass 15 (1):e12645.
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The Aesthetic Enkratic Principle.Irene Martínez Marín - 2023 - British Journal of Aesthetics 63 (2):251–268.
The Arbitrariness of Aesthetic Judgment.David Sackris - 2021 - Journal of Value Inquiry 55 (4):625-646.
Beauty, The Social Network.Dominic McIver Lopes - 2017 - Canadian Journal of Philosophy 47 (4):437-453.

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