The Theory Study Of Hume’s Aesthetic Taste

With the combination of taste and the ability to make judgments about beauty in the sense of metaphor,taste has gradually become the subject of Aesthetics.In the whole eighteenth Century,hot debates and discussions of taste have never been stopped among the academic circles.As the most excellent of empiricism aesthetician,Hume also gave a very good opinion of the subject of taste.His aesthetic taste theory is closely related to his philosophy.In his view,taste is different from reason,but it needs rational guidance and it is a socially communicative emotion connected with morality.In Hume’s famous aesthetic masterpiece,of the standard of taste(1757),he systematically demonstrates the relativity and variety of aesthetic taste and also pays attention to the commonality and consistency of aesthetic taste,trying to find a standard for taste and giving a lot of ways to cultivate and improve aesthetic taste.Besides Hume,British empiricism estheticians generally focused on the theory of taste,including the works of Shaftesbury,Addison,Hutcheson and Burke.But Hume’s argument was the most comprehensive.After Hume,Kant concentrated on the critique of taste.Like Hume,Kant also realized the contradiction and unity of taste in diversity and consistency.Compared with Hume,he studies taste more from a transcendental philosophical standpoint,bringing up the antinomy of taste as a good generalization of the difficult problem of taste.Unlike Hume,Kant clearly distinguished the pleasure of taste and the pleasure of the senses.He did not quite agree with the criterion of Hume’s ideal critic,but he admitted the rules of art.Kant’s theory of sensus communis and Hume’s sympathy principle have great similarity,which form the basis of the consistency of taste and they also emphasize the social characteristics of taste.Additionally,the taste theory of the two of them contains moral requirements.In many aspects,Kant responsed to Hume’s theory of taste.The influence of Hume’s theory of taste is far-reaching and the contemporary British and American scholars attach great attention to Hume’s aesthetic article,of the standard of taste,which lasted for almost half a century.Jeffrey Wieand and others argued about the dual nature of Hume’s standards of taste and the criteria for the joint verdict of the ideal critics became the focus of their argument.Ted Cohen disagreed with Hume’s view of the difference in degree between tastes,and claimed that there was a gap between a recognition of accurate taste and the desire to have it.Richard Shusterman said that Hume’s deep motivation is to legalize the taste of a few elite classes as the only legitimate taste.Peter Kivy charged Hume’s standard of taste with circularity.No?l Carroll’s criticism of Hume is that he did not make a distinction between liking and assessing.Hume’s article quoted in the "Quixote" about the tasting story,which also caused much disputes.Roger A.Shiner and others pointed out the flaws.In a word,the contemporary British and American scholars constantly debate and query on various issues shown by Hume’s theory of taste,such as the duality of taste standards,the elitism behind standards,the circularity of the argument,the misleading of the analogy,making Hume’s aesthetic taste theory in the contemporary burst out new life.