Free Your Mind: The Role of Disinterested Expertise in Hume and Kant Page 2

In Hume's Of the Standard of Taste, he states, "But to enable a critic the more fully to execute this undertaking, he must preserve his mind free from all prejudice, and allow nothing to enter into his consideration, but the very object which is submitted to his examination" (239). Likewise, in Kant's Critique of Judgment, he goes as far as titling one of his sections, "The Liking That Determines a Judgment of Taste Is Devoid of All Interest" (45). Obviously, Hume and Kant similarly view the need for a free from prejudice, objective judgment of beauty. While it is hard to exactly define this need, disinterestedness closely fits their descriptions and will refer to this need from here on out. Their call for a disinterested critic is very reasonable because in order to set such a standard of taste for all humanity, a prejudice free critic would be optimal. As Hume might say, there can be many right sentiments but only one just and true opinion when going for such a global standard. By definition disinterestedness is the quality of being objective or impartial, and this objectiveness or impartiality is key to both Hume and Kant's arguments.

If disinterestedness is one of the key qualifiers for Hume and Kant's arguments, there is then a problem in deciding what person would be able to make a disinterested yet knowledgeable judgment. In other words, there is a calling for expertise with complete disinterest. The main problem then arises, how could one be an expert of something that they show disinterest towards? The question in itself seems to be a paradox. Expertise can be described as having knowledge from training and experience, but could one achieve this knowledge and still "preserve his mind free of all prejudice" (242). This need for disinterested expertise proves to be the main setback that Hume and Kant need to attend to. If Hume and Kant can establish the undoubted existence of such a critic, their arguments will be firmly established; however, failure to do so will result in nothing more than well thought out speculation.

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