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Single Idea 20411

[filed under theme 21. Aesthetics / A. Aesthetic Experience / 3. Taste ]

Full Idea

To say thast 'Everyone has his special taste' would be to dismiss the very possibility of aesthetic taste, and to deny that there could be aesthetic judgement 'that could make a rightful claim to the assent of everyone'.

Gist of Idea

Saying everyone has their own taste destroys the very idea of taste

Source

Immanuel Kant (Critique of Judgement I: Aesthetic [1790], CUP 7 5:213), quoted by Elizabeth Schellekens - Immanuel Kant (aesthetics) 2.2

Book Ref

'Key Thinkers in Aesthetics', ed/tr. Giovannelli,Alessandro [Continuum 2012], p.65


A Reaction

I am a great believer in the objectivity of taste (within sensible reason). But the great evidence against it is the shifting standards of taste over the centuries. Nineteenth century collectors wasted fortunes on inferior works, it seems to us.


The 11 ideas with the same theme [nature and status of good taste]:

If would be absurd not to disagree with someone's taste if it was a taste for poisons [Leibniz]
Strong sense, delicate sentiment, practice, comparisons, and lack of prejudice, are all needed for good taste [Hume]
There are axioms of taste - such as a general consensus about a beautiful face [Reid]
With respect to the senses, taste is an entirely personal matter [Kant]
When we judge beauty, it isn't just personal; we judge on behalf of everybody [Kant]
Saying everyone has their own taste destroys the very idea of taste [Kant]
Why are the strong tastes of other people so contagious? [Nietzsche]
Taste is the capacity to judge an object or representation which is thought to be beautiful [Tarski, by Schellekens]
Literary meaning emerges in comparisons, and tradition shows which comparisons are relevant [Scruton]
Critics must be causally entangled with their subject matter [Fogelin]
The faculty of 'taste' was posited to explain why only some people had aesthetic appreciation [Davies,S]