In this paper, I attempt to recover an 18 th Century approach to moral theory that can be called Moral Taste Theory. Through an exploration of 18 th Century sources I define the characteristics of moral taste theory and to distinguish it from its closest rival, moral sense theory. In general a moral taste theorist holds that moral judgments are analogous to aesthetic judgments while a moral sense theorist holds that moral judgments are analogous to physical sense perception. Francis Hutcheson

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... s a paradigmatic moral sense theorist, but I argue that David Hume is best understood as a moral taste theorist. If we do not understand the concept of moral taste, we cannot understand 18 th Century moral philosophy, and, more importantly, we will miss out on an important source of inspiration for 21 st Century moral philosophy. Essays Philos (2016)17:5-21 |