In search of an objective and universal beauty

A subtle tradition dating back to the Scottish Enlightenment, and in particular to David Hume, one of its leading exponents, makes the aesthetic evaluation of a thing a personal feeling, but one caused by properties actually possessed by that thing.

There are two paradoxical intuitions about the aesthetic values we attribute to things or beings. On the one hand, we are convinced of the subjective content of these judgments: an object may be beautiful for one person, but not for another. On the other hand, we have the impression that, for certain things at least, the aesthetic assessment we make of them is based on characteristics they actually possess. Otherwise, we would never debate the quality of a work of art (what would be the point?), and we wouldn't be able to say that a Michelangelo fresco is inherently more beautiful than a doodle.