Experience, Empiricism, and Connection to Interdisciplinarity in David Hume’s (1757) Of the Standard of Taste

David Hume (1711-1776) was a Scottish philosopher who’s idea on the concepts of empirical philosophy, criticism of induction, and naturalistic science were at the height of the enlightenment period especially in the United Kingdom. Hume was especially critical of the religious philosophies, questioning the idea that knowledge comes from individual experience not from secondary testimony or revelation.

In his work Of the Standard of Taste (1757), Hume reflects on how taste is not inherent, rather based on experience of embracing different moments (i.e. food, lifestyles, etc.). Hume uses the literary piece of Don Quixote to describe the difference of taste, where two men drink a bottle of wine, one senses a taste of leather, the other senses a taste of metal, only to find that at the bottom of the wine glass is a key with a leather tie attached (Hume, 1757). This shows that one can taste the wine for the wine, or one can taste all the distinctive flavours creating proficiency, where one tasting metal or leather is based on experiential knowledge.

I personally connect three themes in the reading:

• Experience
• Empiricism
• Connection to Interdisciplinarity

Experience

Hume’s words reflect a sort of scaffolding from experience, leading to knowledge, leading to clarity in decision making. The fact that one can embrace the taste of foods and drinks, one can be knowledgeable of taste and based on taste experience, creating a distinction through moral reasoning. Sure in a modern context this may be seen as snobbery, but it presents a question of the only way to true knowledge is experiencing the knowledge first hand. Normative or neutral experiences base the ideal for knowledge and not being clouded by forcefully positive, or negative experiences stating that true taste or flavours cannot be determined if sickness is involved, causing a detriment to the taste buds.

Empiricism

Hume works toward empiricism outlining the various sentiments of individuals may be reconciled (Hume, 1757). Hume expands on this by using comparison to see and examine in multiple circumstances to rate merit. Empiricism is stimulated by an experience, in a greater sense, a collective experience shared by a number of people. For example, a collective experience of sensing gravity through mathematics, data , and experimental design create a universal law of gravity. Keeping on this theme, the Sokal Affair in 1996, where physics professor Alan Sokal submitted a hoax paper to the journal Social Text stating that quantum gravity is a social and linguistic construct reflects the questioning of merit in some academic circles (Sokal, 1996, June 5). This presents a danger in academia citing a theory or ideal that has not been empirically tested presenting a contrary ideal on a universal law.

Following the writings and sentiments of Hume, he would see the Sokal affair as empiricism questioning a staunch ideology or religion, following that a theology creates a level of bigotry and superstition, and has no place in the realm of thoughtful and empirical comparison.

Connection to Interdisciplinarity

Interdisciplinarity is an interesting dynamic with this piece as we look at this work as the augmenting of different knowledge realms. We see the Newtonian form of experimentalism combined with the Lockean or Baconian form of empiricism to create an idea of knowledge (Hume, 1757). The synthesis of these ideas are that experiments shape empiricism through experiments alone being thoughts, and experiments in different empirical realms are accepted as truth. Within education for example, we tend to accept certain educational theory without inductively testing said educational theory. What the phenomenon of interdisciplinarity introduces is the ability of using experimental design and empiricism together can develop answers to complex issues.

We should move back towards a center of empiricism and experimentation with regard to our public policy especially within the education sector. We seem to follow a thread of certain theories and theological concepts that have not been significantly tested. With this we may fall into the warning of Hume, reducing to bigotry and superstition.

References

Hume, D. (1757). Of the standard of taste. (P. Bizzell, & B. Herzberg, Eds.) Bedford/St. Martins.

Sokal, A. (1996, June 5). A physicist experiments with cultural studies. Lingua Franca.