A Critical Review on the Book “Hume’s Aesthetic Theory, Taste and Sentiment”

Townsend’s “Hume's Aesthetics Theory, Taste and Sentiment” is a critical point in Hume studies. Before that, Hume's commentators hold that his aesthetics was explained only in his short essay entitled as Standard of Taste. But Townsend shows that Hume's aesthetic can be found in other works, such as A Treatise of Human Nature, An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals and An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Through these books, we can gain a comprehensive understanding of Hume's aesthetics. But, furthermore, he asserts that the main basis of Hume’s philosophical system is his aesthetics, a claim that we found it very controversial.  He also shows that concepts of taste and sentiment have an epistemological role in Hume's Aesthetics. But his conclusive interest to aesthetics leads him to give a strange and misunderstanding reading of Hume's philosophy. This book could be better understood as speculation concerning Hume’s philosophical system rather than instructing his aesthetics.