Taste and objectivity: The emergence of the concept of the aesthetic

Philosophy Compass 4 (5):734-743 (2009)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Can there be a philosophy of taste? This paper opens by raising some metaphilosophical questions about the study of taste – what it consists of and what method we should adopt in pursuing it. It is suggested that the best starting point for philosophising about taste is against the background of 18th-century epistemology and philosophy of mind, and the conceptual tools this new philosophical paradigm entails. The notion of aesthetic taste in particular, which emerges from a growing sense of dissatisfaction with an undifferentiated category of taste, comes to be set apart from gustatory taste on account of its normativity and aspirations to objectivity. The paradox of taste, as found in Hume and Kant, is examined, and shown to be highly relevant to contemporary metaphysical debate within aesthetics. Specifically, this paper argues that both Realists and Anti-Realists rely more heavily than assumed on the idea of taste.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,221

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Hume's principles of taste: A reply to Dickie.James Shelley - 2004 - British Journal of Aesthetics 44 (1):84-89.
On the Old Saw “I know nothing about art but I know what I like".Kevin Melchionne - 2010 - Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 68 (2):131-141.
Delicacy in Hume's Theory of Taste.Theodore Gracyk - 2011 - Journal of Scottish Philosophy 9 (1):1-16.
Kant on the normativity of taste: The role of aesthetic ideas.Andrew Chignell - 2007 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 85 (3):415 – 433.
Kant's theory of judgment, and judgments of taste: On Henry Allison's "Kant's theory of taste".Béatrice Longuenesse - 2003 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 46 (2):143 – 163.
Acquired Taste.Kevin Melchionne - 2007 - Contemporary Aesthetics.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-08-27

Downloads
279 (#65,713)

6 months
10 (#134,835)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Elisabeth Schellekens
Uppsala University

Citations of this work

An empirical investigation of guilty pleasures.Kris Goffin & Florian Cova - 2019 - Philosophical Psychology 32 (7):1129-1155.
Really Boring Art.Andreas Elpidorou & John Gibson - 2022 - Ergo: An Open Access Journal of Philosophy 8 (30):190-218.

View all 6 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

The View From Nowhere.Thomas Nagel - 1986 - New York: Oxford University Press.
An essay concerning human understanding.John Locke - 1689 - New York: Oxford University Press. Edited by Pauline Phemister.
Critique of the power of judgment.Immanuel Kant - 2000 - New York: Cambridge University Press. Edited by Paul Guyer.
The View from Nowhere.Thomas Nagel - 1986 - Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale 92 (2):280-281.
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.John Locke - 1979 - Revue Philosophique de la France Et de l'Etranger 169 (2):221-222.

View all 21 references / Add more references