A STUDY OF HUTCHESON’S AND HUME’S THEORIES OF AESTHETIC TASTE

This thesis examines the aesthetic theories by Francis Hutcheson and David Hume, two of the most influential philosophers of the eighteenth century. Focused on the interpretation of both theories, it concentrates on the issue of human taste, in particular, aesthetic taste, including questions concerning people’s external sense (sensation) and internal sense (sensations), what the differences are between better taste and worse taste, how people possible improve taste by practice, examples, customs, education, and the like. It concludes with a criticism on both philosophers’ works and a positive argument on the explanation of better and worse taste. Primary texts include Hutcheson’s Inquiry concerning Beauty, Order, Harmony and Design and Hume’s Of the Standard of Taste