What does the Humean view say about beauty?

• A. Beauty exists in the mind of the perceiver, not inherently in objects.
• B. Beauty is an objective property of objects.
• C. Beauty is determined by cultural norms alone.
• D. Beauty is a mathematical function.

Answer: (A)

Beauty, for the Humean view, is a feeling produced in the observer rather than an intrinsic feature of the object. He argues that aesthetic judgments come from our sentiments and pleasures invoked by what we perceive, so beauty isn’t something lodged in the object itself. This makes judgments about beauty inherently subjective—different people can experience different responses, and taste can be shaped by experience and exposure. While Hume does propose that there can be a general standard of taste among seasoned critics, that standard rests on shared sentiments and judgment, not on an objective property of the object. So beauty is about the observer’s mind and reaction, not about something the object inherently possesses.