Hume's Two Standards of Taste: A Response to Kim

Abstract In a recent article, Byoungjae Kim has proposed a novel solution to the puzzle of why Hume offers two standards of taste—the rules of art and the joint verdict of true judges. The rules of art, Kim proposes, are easy to formulate, but difficult to apply to particular cases. True judges are those who can reliably apply the rules of art to arrive at their superior judgements of taste. In this discussion note, I argue that this proposal should be rejected. Not only does it lack textual support, but it can also be shown to be implausible on independent grounds. Worse still, Hume explicitly contradicts it. An attentive reading of Hume's essay does, however, show that Hume thinks that the rules of art have an important use in identifying true judges. This, I argue, is key to understanding the relationship between his two standards of taste.