Evaluating David Hume's "Of the Standard of Taste"
Hume begins this text by narrowing in on comparing literary works and how one may appear superior to the other. Hume states that when people say they prefer one author over another, they prefer such author due to their literary ‘taste’. The issue Hume presents here is that taste is based on the response to something and this taste is also based on the pleasure gained from the response to that thing. It makes sense that if one author is providing the reader with more pleasure than another author does, then there is no reason to deny that such an author is better than the other. This is provided that they are stating that they themselves tend to prefer such author and not necessarily that everyone will prefer such author or receive as much pleasure from their work.
Hume argues that we cannot state all individual’s tastes are of equal value, as some appear ridiculous to us. He notes that our pleasures are governed by rules or other such and are not at all random. For instance, people enjoy hot chocolate on a cold day, if you are to say you cannot drink hot chocolate because you are lactose intolerant it would make sense to avoid hot chocolate as it contains dairy, however if you say that you simply don’t want it because you don’t like hot chocolate one would likely think you are strange as the normal rules fail to apply. Literature tends to fall into categories or genres that some people enjoy and some people do not, as some will gain pleasure from such literature and others will not.
Hume adds that an individual’s taste for art is based on their education or practice, for instance, someone with no education or previous experience of Shakespeare would likely not enjoy or be entertained by watching such art be performed. Some individuals fail to notice some important or notable things that pertain to the experience, for instance, in the example of perfume some are able to smell keynotes and other such things while others noses are not as refined and are not able to do so. If an individual fails to be able to “taste” a form of art due to their lack of ability to perceive such, then they cannot share an opinion of it as they cannot experience it in full. Hume uses an analogy, which he calls the Sancho’s Kinsmen Story, which states that although the majority may think a piece of artwork is good, it may not be. This can be due to the fact that although it is the majority, they are not always in the position to be able to accurately judge pieces of artwork.
There are various reasons that Hume brings up as to why people are not good judges, some being that they lack practice, delicacy, possess prejudice towards certain art, and other various distortions of taste.
