Abstract

Toward the end of “Of the Standard of Taste,” Hume summarizes what it means to be “a true judge in the finer arts.” He says: “Strong sense, united to delicate sentiment, improved by practice, perfected by comparison, and cleared of all prejudice, can alone entitle critics to this valuable character.”1 Throughout the essay, he also claims that his position is commonsensical and naturalistic—that is, notwithstanding the diversity of opinion among critics, there is a “structure of the mind... naturally calculated to give pleasure,”2 that the “general principles of taste are uniform in human nature,”3 that the foundation of good taste lies in “the common sentiments of human nature.”4 Hume is essentially right about..