The ancient world view was that there are standards for things, ideals about the way that things should be. The debate was over whether these ideals existed in the heavens or whether they were embedded in things themselves. The modern world abandoned this view. They recognized that ideals or standards for objects were things that we imposed on them. Modern thinkers saw a divide between what exists in the world on its own and what we bring into existence with our minds via perceptions. The necessary properties that an object has are its primary qualities. These include things like taking up space and being in time. The accidental properties that an object has are its secondary qualities. Secondary qualities include sensations like color, hardness, odor, as well as values such as beauty, goodness, usefulness. Two of the most significant modern thinkers were David Hume and Immanuel Kant.
Hume
Teachings
Value, he determined, must be subjective in some sense, rather than objective. He thought value was inter-subjectively determined. This means that each person on his or her own arrives to a consensus about what should be valued. That value judgement is made by answering a simple question: do I like this? But not just anybody determines what that consensus is. Hume says that we must trust those who are unimpaired, who have discernment, and who have taste to ultimately determine what is valuable. For Hume an unimpaired person is one who lacks disability such as blindness or deafness, a discerning person is one who makes well informed kinds of decisions and a tasteful person has an appreciation for things that have long been appreciated.
Applications
For Hume a good website is one that people with taste like.
- Unified by being liked -- we can quickly see that the masses like the content; professionals (those who like what has traditionally been liked over time) like the content; and peers (those who like what we have liked) like the content
- Accessible by sensibility -- we participate by consuming and liking the content because of how it affects us or how other similar things that have stood the test of time have affected us
- Ongoing by tradition -- we hope to like what will endure into the future
Kant
Immanuel Kant
Philosopher
Born: April 22, 1724, Königsberg, Germany
Died: February 12, 1804, Königsberg, Germany
Education: University of Königsberg (1740–1746)
Teachings
Kant said that it was Hume who awoke him from his dogmatic slumbers, meaning that instead of just accepting principles he wanted to figure out the reasons for them.
Kant saw that there were limitations in empiricist thinking. He sought to determine what it is we need in order to even have experience at all. He thought that there are concepts that we bring to experience that are pre-built into us. These are concepts we all share, like space and time. Just try to imagine having an experience that occurs without location or duration. There are other concepts that we formulate ourselves, and we enjoy doing so, which Kant calls the free play of the imagination. To Kant, more important than just whether we like something or not is if we enjoy the process of thinking about and assessing things.
Applications
For Kant a good website is one that people like because of their authentic, reflective judgement.
- Unified by being being articulately reviewed -- we can see that articulate, authentic reviewers all like praising it
- Accessible by sense -- we can participate by formulating fitting concepts to describe the best content
- Ongoing reviews -- we can continue to articulately review the best content
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