Scintillating discussions of art and philosophy, by Rebecca Blocksome's Western Thought I class at the Kansas City Art Institute.
Monday, April 11, 2011
I think Hume has good taste concerning good taste
I was pleased with Hume's dissection of precision and accuracy in analyzing and discussing the operations of visual elements and intellectual faculties in any given work of art. Many of his assertions run parallel with my own ideas that concern judging a work of art based on sentiment and judging it based reason. I agree with Hume's assertion that maintaining an unbiased and considerate vantage point when contemplating a work of art is absolutely necessary to interpret its formal qualities. Allowing the merit of a work of art to be corrupted by a stagnant, static point of view is discrediting more to the viewer than to the art for he imposes his personal preferences on the art and inhibits himself from ever gaining a new, true understanding of what beauty really is. One must appropriate himself to the vantage point the artist to gain a clear understanding of the artwork's significance. I never deeply meditated on Hume's statement that it is unreasonable to argue about taste because everybody's taste is different! But I believe that is why inherently I have always tried to be tolerant, patient, and even admirable of others attributes because I consider uniqueness beautiful. Even his method to approaching a bad critic is tasteful because it does not insult the personal preferences of the other viewer but only brings him to consider a new view point other than his own which is beneficial to gaining knowledge. I would consider that TWO favors, one for yourself and one for him.
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Sorry, just realized grammatical error after posting. I meant to say "One must appropriate himself to the vantage point the artist *intended* to gain a clear understanding...
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