Abstract

My paper deals with the aporiae inherent in the British Enlightenment's theories of taste. I argue, first, that the "naturalistic" theory of taste in the first half of the eighteenth century - which presupposes the Enlightenment theory of "natural right" and whose representatives are Addison, Hume and Burke - results in an aporia: its upholders seek the standard of taste in "human nature" and approve a taste free from prejudices, but they are faced with the necessity of positing a cultivation of taste that cannot be brought about in a naturalistic way. Secondly, I claim that in the second half of the century an objection to the naturalistic theory of taste is raised by Reynolds. Especially in his late discourses, he legitimates the role that the "prejudices" play in cultivating a national taste, but comes to deny their variability; thereby demonstrating another kind of aporia that is peculiar to conservatism. It is concluded that the aporiae in British theories of taste in the eighteenth century follow from the aporia inherent in the modern ideas of the "individual" and the "human"