(Of the) standard of taste

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1. sixhobbitsNov 2021
   I'm was expecting him to mention "Of the Standard of Taste" by David Hume [0] which makes a similar and I think better (though maybe not as easy to read) argument and which I thought this piece was inspired by at first.

   [0] https://home.csulb.edu/~jvancamp/361r15.html

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2. sixhobbitsSep 2020
   I know you asked about "good" implying skill, but your example of Tolkien made me think of Hume's "Of the Standard of Taste"[0]

   Not the lightest reading, but very worth the effort. TL;DR - taste is something that can be more refined or less refined. We have some reasons to believe that more refined tastes are 'better' than less refined tastes (people who have learned to appreciate more sophisticated tastes never want to 'go back' even though they now have fewer opportunities for enjoyment).

   Obviously it's very controversial and you can make the argument that it's just snobbery, but I think Hume gets at something.

   [0] https://web.csulb.edu/~jvancamp/361r15.html

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3. dvtFeb 2016
   > in what sense is that assessment objective?

   There's no easy way of answering that on this kind of medium (an Internet forum). I took two graduate seminars and wrote several papers on it :) But as a primer, I strongly suggest reading Hume's 'Of the standard of taste': http://www.econlib.org/library/LFBooks/Hume/hmMPL23.html

   In that essay, he attempts to provide some clear-cut criteria for an objective judgment of art, food, and literature.

   (Note that there ARE people that are relativists and they have a somewhat compelling argument. That's perfectly fine. I just don't buy it and I think they're wrong.)

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4. dvtFeb 2016
   Yeah, so again: I don't buy this kind of bullshit relativism. There's strong empirical evidence that certain things (so called subjective things: art, food, literature) are better than other things in the same arena.

   As I suggested in my other comment, as I primer, I strongly suggest reading Hume's 'Of the Standard of Taste' and bringing forward some talking points instead of pretending like you're making some kind of profound argument. In other words, what you're saying isn't new. It's also very simplistic, naïve, and (I believe) probably wrong.

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