also i think i probably disagree with you about 'maths' thinking vs 'taste' thinking as a real dichotomy -- and also sort of on your desire to move away from subjectivism o:)
i think aesthetic judgements can probably be objective relative to a certain set of standards, and while we may prefer different standards in different situations, there are many situations where we may have no particularly compelling way of distinguishing standards (which isn't to say we can't have a conversation about what standards should be -- for example when we're talking about public architecture). in any case, the process of forming a judgement relative to a set of aesthetic standards (ie judging 'taste') feels very similar to me to the type of thing the mathematician you describe above might be doing (whether or not that's a fair characterisation of mathematics is another question ;))
Does coolors.ai prove that there is at least some common conception of what good taste is ? The fact it’s been able to draw and generalise some rules?
Those who once inhabited the subrubs of human contempt find that without changing their address they evenutally live in the metropolis - Crisp
DH Lawrence - it takes a lot of courage to sail gaily, in brave feathers, right in the teeth of dreary convention
https://paulgraham.com/goodtaste.html
Pascal espirit de finesse vs espirit de geometrique
also i think i probably disagree with you about 'maths' thinking vs 'taste' thinking as a real dichotomy -- and also sort of on your desire to move away from subjectivism o:)
i think aesthetic judgements can probably be objective relative to a certain set of standards, and while we may prefer different standards in different situations, there are many situations where we may have no particularly compelling way of distinguishing standards (which isn't to say we can't have a conversation about what standards should be -- for example when we're talking about public architecture). in any case, the process of forming a judgement relative to a set of aesthetic standards (ie judging 'taste') feels very similar to me to the type of thing the mathematician you describe above might be doing (whether or not that's a fair characterisation of mathematics is another question ;))
kant link doesn't work! would love to read :)