Of the Standard of Taste
Place on List:
I. Literary Theory and
Criticism
1. History of Literary Theory and
Criticism until 1930
David Hume. “Of
the Standard of Taste” in The Four
Dissertations.
Supporting References:
- “David Hume.” The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed. Vincent B. Leitch. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2001. 483-6. Print.
- Morris, William Edward. "David Hume." The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Ed. Edward N. Zalta. Spring Edition. 2013. Web. 14 Aug 2013.
The article with
URL( http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume/
) offers an overview of Hume and less a discussion on the above-cited
text.
“The most
important philosopher ever to write in English, David Hume
(1711-1776) — the last of the great triumvirate of “British
empiricists” — was also well-known in his own time as an
historian and essayist. A master stylist in any genre, Hume's major
philosophical works — A Treatise of Human Nature
(1739-1740), the Enquiries concerning Human Understanding
(1748) and concerning the Principles of Morals (1751), as
well as the posthumously published Dialogues concerning Natural
Religion (1779) — remain widely and deeply influential.
Although many of Hume's contemporaries denounced his writings as
works of scepticism and atheism, his influence is evident in the
moral philosophy and economic writings of his close friend Adam
Smith. Hume also awakened Immanuel Kant from his “dogmatic
slumbers” and “caused the scales to fall” from Jeremy Bentham's
eyes. Charles Darwin counted Hume as a central influence, as did
“Darwin's bulldog,” Thomas Henry Huxley. The diverse directions
in which these writers took what they gleaned from reading Hume
reflect not only the richness of their sources but also the wide
range of his empiricism. Today, philosophers recognize Hume as a
precursor of contemporary cognitive science, as well as one of the
most thoroughgoing exponents of philosophical naturalism.”
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