Is There Such a Thing as "Good Taste"? Plato and Aristotle

Is there such a thing as "good taste"? Plato and Aristotle would have answered "Yes," in light of their shared belief that beauty (or, more generally, aesthetic value)is objective. Many people today, however, reject their objectivism, claiming instead that "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." This means that the reality of beauty is subjective, depending on the responses and tastes of people to artwork. This is a much more democratic viewpoint insofar as it seems to imply the equality of all tastes. However, some philosophers, in particular Hume and Kant, developed a middle ground between Plato and Aristotle's strong objectivism and democratic subjectivism. They try to defend good taste and some version of subjectivism.   Write an essay on this disagreement. Start by laying out Plato and Aristotle's viewpoint and its implications for aesthetic taste. Then describe the democratic, subjectivist response. Follow this with an overview of Hume and Kant's viewpoints on taste. Do you believe that either Hume or Kant succeeded in carving out a workable compromise?

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