Abstract

In his discussions about aesthetics, Hume seeks for a key to the controversial issue of passion. He thinks things are not fine-looking in themselves, rather the mind which considers the objects creates the beauty. Apparently, he raises a paradoxical claim. On the one hand, beauty is regarded something mental and completely subjective arisen from feelings, but on the other hand not only he suggests that we can judge about a work of art assessing its aesthetic value but also we can prefer one aesthetic judgment over another which implies an evidence of objective criteria on artistic evaluation. It is taken for granted by Hume that the intersubjectivity of aesthetic perception gives rise to achieving a collective agreement about it. Embracing the importance of aesthetic experience, nonetheless, Hume puts emphasis on the role of critics, those with some characteristics whose judgments may turn into the criterion for taste which is not of the affection category, but something real. In this paper, the author attempts to survey Hume’s emphasis on the role of critics as the reference standards for different tastes of individuals.