The aesthetics of food : the philosophical debate about what we eat and drink / Kevin W. Sweeney.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sweeney, Kevin W., 1945- author.

Contributor:

Beverly Bennett Rutstein CW'50 Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gastronomy.

Food habits--History.

Food habits.

History.

Food--Philosophy.

Food.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

vii, 204 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

London ; Lanham, Maryland : Rowman & Littlefield International Ltd., [2018]

Summary:

The Aesthetics of Food: The Philosophical Debate about What We Eat and Drink sets out the continuing philosophical debate about the aesthetic nature of food. The debate begins with Plato's claim that only objects of sight and hearing could be beautiful; consequently, food, as something we smell and taste, could not be beautiful. This book demonstrates how the current debate has evolved, showing how it has been influenced by the changing nature of critical theory and by changes in art historical paradigms, as well as by recent advances in neuroscience. Particular attention is paid to recent philosophical discussion about wine: whether an interest in a wine reflects only a subjective or personal preference or whether one can make objective judgments about the quality and merit of a wine. Finally, Kevin W. Sweeney explores how the debate has been informed by changes in the cooking, presenting, and consuming of food. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 The Aesthetics of Food: Cuisine and Taste 1

Ferran Adrià and Contemporary Cuisine 4

Theories of Taste 9

Taste in Asia 12

2 Taste in Antiquity: Plato's Rejection of Food 19

From Wild Man to Civilized Being: The Epic of Gilgamesh 20

Food and the Evolution of Homo sapiene 22

Plato's Rejection of the Pleasures of Food 24

Plato's Denial That Cuisine Has an Art or Craft 26

Heldke's Critique of Plato's Rejection of Cuisine in Gorgias 26

Plato's Account of Taste 28

Plato's Theory of Taste and the Greeks' Love of Food 31

Summary 34

3 Aristotelian and Roman Views on Taste 39

Aristotle on Gluttony 40

Aristotle's Theory of Taste 42

Taste and Touch 44

Freeland's Critique of Aristotle's Theory of Touch 46

Aristotle's Common Sense 47

Can Food Be Beautiful? 48

Summary of Aristotle's Theory of Taste 51

Gustatory Experience in the Roman Empire 53

Christianity Struggles with Food and Wine 60

4 Medieval and Renaissance Views on Food 71

Food in the Monastic Refectory and the Feudal Hall 72

Renaissance Gastronomy in Italy 74

Seventeenth-Century French Cuisine 78

Service à la Fraçaise 80

The Distillation of Alcohol 82

Descartes, Alcohol, and Animal Spirits 83

5 Critical Taste in the Enlightenment 89

Addison on Fine Taste 90

Shaftesbury and Hutcheson 93

Du Bos and Voltaire 98

Hume's Theory of Taste and Gustatory Experience 100

Delicacy of Taste and the "Finer Emotions" 106

Reid on Taste 108

Conclusion 110

6 Kant and Brillat-Savarin on Taste 117

Kant on Taste 117

Taste of Sense and Taste of Reflection 119

Disinterestedness and Having a Gustatory Appetite 121

Kant on Common Sense 125

Gastrpmpmuy and Brillat-Savarin 126

Brillat-Savarin and Gourmandism 130

Brillat-Savarin's Physiology of Taste 131

Taste and the Gastronomic Revolution 133

Carême and the Celebrity Chef 135

Expressionism and Food 136

Lewis Carroll on Food 137

7 Creating and Tasting: Can Fine Food Be Fine Art? 145

Clement Greenberg's Modernism 146

Clive Bell and "Significant Form" 147

Prall and Beardsley on Whether Tastes and Smells Can Have Structures 148

Dewey on Having an Experience with Food 150

Modernism and Cuisine 152

Telfer and Korsmeyer on the Pleasures of Taste 154

The Art World and Cuisine 157

Kuehn and Monroe: Can Cuisine Be Fine Art? 158

Postmodernism and the Multisensitivity of Taste 159

8 Tasting Wine 167

Scruton on Taste and Smell 168

Hume's Wine-Tasting Example Reconsidered 171

Analytic Realism 172

Analytic Interpretivism 175

The Synthetic Character of Wine Tasting 178

9 The Philosophical Debate about the Aesthetics of Food 183.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Beverly Bennett Rutstein CW'50 Fund.

Other Format:

Online version: Sweeney, Kevin W., 1945- Aesthetics of food.

ISBN:

9781783487431

9781783487424

1783487429

1783487437

OCLC:

1003268984

Publisher Number:

99975760104