Precis of No accounting for taste
“De gustibus non est disputandum” goes the Latin maxim — literally “of matters of taste there is no disputing”, or more popularly, “there’s no accounting for taste”. Nietzsche disagreed, holding that “all life is a disputing of taste and tasting”. Democritus believed that all our senses are intrinsically fallible.
How something tastes (to me, to you) tells us only about ourselves, not the
morsel in our mouth. Philosophers of mind use the term “qualia” to capture the
notion of a qualitative perception that can’t be any further reduced — the
unique duckiness in the flavor of duck, say. Still, taste is an endlessly complex sense,
and too much analysis can leave you with nothing. As Berkeley
UPCOMING Later 2008
