humanities.philosophy.objectivism

Tom/TC and HPO:

TC wrote:
[...]
> As to aestheitcs, there is no accounting for taste -
> it is a corollary of free will.
>
> Tom


That isn't a true "corollary", however, the notion of taste and
preference, based upon free-will, is nonetheless one of the most
difficult philosophical problems for Objectivists.

If one disagrees, the person will appear to be almost in a state of
paranoid psychological denial regarding what they deem to be a possible
attack upon their personal and property rights. The person will even
imagine that since you are opposed to their rights you are arguing out
of a sense of irrationality and force. You must be immoral. You must be
wrong, and they are totally in the right.

Preferences are a matter of free-will, and I'll agree with that.
However, the basis of positivism for the absolutism of the result of
free choice, or the emotional subjectivism that is a matter of the
sacred realm of the person's happiness, is not to be challenged.

The path to subjectively-based preferences exists. The person is often
not able to identify why they formed or have such opinions, why
preferences are right or wrong with moral importance to them.

My understanding is that an objective explanation is not involved with
that type of preference. Not many Objectivists know what the
philosophical structure is, or should be, that operates when preferences
are formed or changed. The book on aesthetics and preferences hasn't
been written.

Music is a good example. Once the non-figurative nature of the music has
been understood in the Objectivist framework of otherwise figurative
art, a listener may over the course of years and preference experience
develop a highly sophisticated, probably hierarchical, series or system
of preference decisions. Children are better at preference formation not
having been bombarded by social preferences. They will tell you with
certainty just what candy or food is the best. Adults, may say or have
said that Greek temple styled bank facades or K. Hovnanian storybook
houses are the best examples of architecture because they sell or have
sold the most.

Is free will the proper basis for preferences? Is there something better?

Ralph Hertle

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