Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder: Perceptions Of Beauty

David Hume a philosopher who is known for his thoughts on taste. The similarities between your palates taste and your taste in art. He thought that if you understand these differences and similarities then you could inspect art better. He had many thoughts on beauty and what that word meant and how it related to taste. David Hume thought the standard of taste and sentiment were important especially in the art world. Bodily taste and taste in art were thought to go hand-in-hand with each other, and that if you understand how your bodily taste works then you would more so understand how your taste in art works.

David Hume starts his paper by explaining how people see beauty. “The sentiments of men often differ with regard to beauty and deformity of all kinds, even while their general discourse is the same” (255). This means that people usually see beauty and deformity differently but when getting a closer look at whatever object is in observation, the idea is generally the same. Then he goes on to talk about how different words have essentially the same but opposite definitions. He uses the example of vice and virtue. And he also talked about how if people spoke the same language they have to agree on how to use those said words whether or not it is good or bad. But at the same time when an argument or such ensues the same use of those words no longer exists because it depends on the connotation that person uses. Using words to describe taste is important, since you can not actually taste art.

When you think of taste in art, usually your mind goes to how you perceive the work of art. These opinions of art are all correct because every person interprets art differently and no judgement of taste truly represents what is in the said art piece. Talking about taste means your essentially talking about how you see the beauty in the art. “Beauty is no quality in things themselves: it exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty.” (257) To sum this up, it means that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. After talking about how people see beauty, he goes on to talk about how essentially the bodily taste and aesthetic taste go hand in hand. Objects are often compared even though they should not be compared. Comparing these things are just mere observations in which pleases all those no matter age or where they are from.

Not all people really go on to appreciate art the way it needs to be appreciated. People want to feel special and think they have a special or unique judgement of a certain piece, but yet when stating their judgement, they reduce it all the way down to the standard of taste. “This we call delicacy of taste, whether we employ these terms in the literal or metaphorical sense.” (260) This just means that we use taste in a way to judge either literally -with our palates, or metaphorically -our taste in art. To understand one of these, which means it will help you understand the other. “He must conclude, upon the whole, that the fault lies in himself.” (261) When confronted with the principles of taste that are proven, the person who had made that certain judgement, has to realise they are wrong due to themselves.

The idea of judging an art, is hard, you have to be able to put aside all predetermined judgements, for you have to know what you are truly judging. You can only truly judge what you know. People are not qualified to make certain distinctions in art. They have to understand how the taste works in a bodily function and how it works aesthetically, but also have to understand that they don’t and will not fully understand the true principles for each. “Many men, when left to themselves, have but a faint and dubious perception of beauty, who yet are capable of relishing any fine stroke, which is pointed out to them.”(265) This is saying how people hardly ever understand their true perception of beauty, yet when something beautiful is pointed out they will understand and see how their perception reacts. “Comedy, tragedy, satire, odes, have each its partizans, who prefer that particular species of writing to others” (266) These are examples of different tastes people have in writing. It helps us to understand why people like what they like.

Taste is different for everyone involved. It all depends on what someone likes when it comes to their judgement of things. Their perception of what is going on is important. Understanding that taste in the metaphorical sense and literal sense go hand in hand, and they are both very important. When judging art, those involved need to step back and evaluate the principles of judgement and then realize there is no true correct judgement of said art, however their judgement is right in their perception of it.