Part III: Aesthetics

Chapter 10

Study questions for What is Aesthetic Judgement?

  1. As we’ve seen, Hume offers two methods for supposedly deriving a standard of correctness for aesthetic judgements, both rooted in ‘natural’ responses of human beings. What do you think of this suggestion?
  2. Kant criticises Hume for not capturing the supposed ‘universality’ of aesthetic judgement. He thinks that when we call something beautiful, effectively we are saying that others should agree with us, not just that they will. Do you agree with him?
  3. Do you agree with Sibley that the very same set of non-aesthetic properties might give rise to two different and contrasting aesthetic judgements, depending on the context of what other non-aesthetic properties are also present? Think of examples which support your position.
  4. Do you share the sense of many that in order to make an aesthetic judgement about an object, only first-hand experience of that object will do? That is, do you endorse the ‘acquaintance principle’? Why/why not?

Multiple Choice Questions

Weblinks for What is aesthetic judgement?

Gracyk, Ted (2011). ‘Hume’s Aesthetics’. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. E. Zalta, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume -aesthetics/. [A comprehensive overview of Hume’s theory of aesthetic judgement.]

Hume (1711). ‘Of the Standard of Taste’. In Four Dissertations, http://www.davidhume.org/texts/fd.html. [Classic essay offering a naturalistic theory of correctness for aesthetic judgements.]

Kant, Immanuel (2011). ‘Analytic of the Beautiful’, trans. James Creed Meredith, originally published by Clarendon Press, http://www.sophia-project.org/uploads/1/3/9/5/13955288/kant_beautiful.pdf [Difficult but very influential section of Kant’s Critique of Judgement.]

Zangwill, Nick, ‘Aesthetic Judgement’, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. E. Zalta, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aesthetic-judgment/. [Useful introduction to some of the key issues, though with a strong slant towards the author’s own preferred theory.]

Introductory further reading for What is aesthetic judgement?

Hughes, Fiona (2009). Kant’s Critique of Aesthetic Judgement. Continuum. [Helpful and detailed interpretation of Kant’s difficult ‘3rd Critique’, including the ‘Analytic of the Beautiful’].

Robson, Jon (2012). ‘Aesthetic Testimony’. Philosophical Compass 7(1). [Sensible, accessible overview of what can be a quite technical debate].

Shelley, James (1994). ‘Hume’s Double Standard of Taste’. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 52(4): 437–45. [Scrupulous and insightful interpretation of Hume’s ‘Of the Standard of Taste’.

Advanced further reading for What is aesthetic judgement?

Levinson, Jerrold (2002). ‘Hume’s Standard of Taste: The Real Problem’. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 60(3). [Provocative challenge to Hume’s theory, focusing on what reason the non-ideal judge has to become more like the ideal one].

Sibley, Frank (1959). ‘Aesthetic Concepts’. Philosophical Review 68(4): 421–50. [Important essay in the history of aesthetics, rejecting the idea of general rules connecting aesthetic judgements with non-aesthetic properties.]

Walton, Kendall (1970). ‘Categories of Art’. Philosophical Review 79(3): 334–67. [Ground-breaking paper attacking aesthetic formalism and promoting the importance of historical and other relational properties, as well as manifest perceptual properties, in grounding aesthetic judgements].