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)
| 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. | |||||||||
| Keywords | taste cultivation affective ignorance aesthetics | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,679 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesPaul Guyer (1993). Kant and the Experience of Freedom: Essays on Aesthetics and Morality. Cambridge University Press.
Dominic McIver Lopes (2008). Virtues of Art: Good Taste. Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 82 (1):197-211.
George Dickie (1996). The Century of Taste: The Philosophical Odyssey of Taste in the Eighteenth Century. Oxford University Press.
Theodore Gracyk (2011). Delicacy in Hume's Theory of Taste. Journal of Scottish Philosophy 9 (1):1-16.
Paul Guyer (1997). Kant and the Claims of Taste. Cambridge University Press.
Henry E. Allison (2001). Kant's Theory of Taste: A Reading of the Critique of Aesthetic Judgment. Cambridge University Press.
Elisabeth Schellekens (2009). Taste and Objectivity: The Emergence of the Concept of the Aesthetic. Philosophy Compass 4 (5):734-743.
Paul Crowther (2010). The Kantian Aesthetic: From Knowledge to the Avant-Garde. Oxford University Press.
Kevin Melchionne (2011). A New Problem for Aesthetics. Contemporary Aesthetics 9.
Kevin Melchionne, Acquired Taste. Contemporary Aesthetics.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2010-04-16Total downloads49 ( #21,760 of 549,078 )Recent downloads (6 months)1 ( #63,317 of 549,078 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
