Making Sense of Taste: Food and Philosophy [Paperback]

Carolyn Korsmeyer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 19, 2002 | ISBN-10: 0801488133 | ISBN-13: 978-0801488139

Taste, perhaps the most intimate of the five senses, has traditionally been considered beneath the concern of philosophy, too bound to the body, too personal and idiosyncratic. Yet, in addition to providing physical pleasure, eating and drinking bear symbolic and aesthetic value in human experience, and they continually inspire writers and artists. Carolyn Korsmeyer explains how taste came to occupy so low a place in the hierarchy of senses and why it is deserving of greater philosophical respect and attention. Korsmeyer begins with the Greek thinkers who classified taste as an inferior, bodily sense; she then traces the parallels between notions of aesthetic and gustatory taste that were explored in the formation of modern aesthetic theories. She presents scientific views of how taste actually works and identifies multiple components of taste experiences. Turning to taste's objects-food and drink-she looks at the different meanings they convey in art and literature as well as in ordinary human life and proposes an approach to the aesthetic value of taste that recognizes the representational and expressive roles of food. Korsmeyer's consideration of art encompasses works that employ food in contexts sacred and profane, that seek to whet the appetite and to keep it at bay; her selection of literary vignettes ranges from narratives of macabre devouring to stories of communities forged by shared eating.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Although we love to talk about food, the sense of taste has rarely been the subject of philosophical analysis. Denigrated as primitive, crude, bestial, and epistemically obtuse, taste has been ignored in favor of vision and hearing, which strike philosophers as nobler, less mixed up with our messy animality. Carolyn Korsmeyer's elegant and witty analysis undermines these stereotypes, challenging philosophy to take account of phenomena that the best writers about food have always known. She argues cogently that taste has complex object-directed intentionality and cognitive content; that food can have many of the properties of a work of art; that eating involves complex forms of symbolic activity. Drawing on science, literature, anthropology, and feminist theory, this exhilarating book is a paradigm of interdisciplinary philosophical analysis."-Martha C. Nussbaum, Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics, Philosophy, Law, and Divinity, The University of Chicago

"According to Korsmeyer, scientific research demonstrates that taste sensations include smells and textures; anthropologists have shown us that sensations are often culturally constituted. She does not use these insights to promote food and beverages as fine arts; instead she employs her enriched conception of aesthetic taste to elicit the meanings of food and drink in art and literature. . . . her book is well worth reading. Recommended for anyone interested in the arts."-Choice. June 2000

"It is to Korsmeyer's credit . . . that she has presented so strong a version of a philosophy of interpretation and shown how well it can be applied to food. As she insightfully establishes, philosophical tradition has not been able to find a place for gustatory taste within its framework, and it is a virtue of Korsmeyer's eloquent little study that she establishes a strong possibility for a cognitively rich philosophy of food."-Dana Polan, University of Southern California. Gastronomica, February 2001

"Of the five senses, two-sight and hearing-were higher and lent themselves to aesthetic perception, while the remaining three-touch, taste and smell-were lower and non-aesthetic senses. Korsmeyer, in this sensitive and judicious book, explores and exposes the errors misinforming this conventional ranking. . . This is an illuminating book."-T. J. Diffey, University of Sussex. British Journal of Aesthetics, Vol. 41, No. 3, July 2001

"In this thoroughly researched, well-organized, tightly argued, clearly-written, and stylistic book, Carolyn Korsmeyer has presented enough food for thought to keep all but the most jaded aestheticians engaged for many happy hours."-Donald W. Crawford, University of California, Santa Barbara. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 59, No. 4, Fall 2001

"A book about how the divergent histories of taste and Taste have left us with an impoverished understanding of the former-and thus a deep skepticism about the aesthetic worth of food. Carolyn Korsmeyer suggests that her project will illuminate readers' understanding of food- and observes that it might well illuminate our understanding of art as well. She succeeds on both counts."-Lisa Heldke, Hypatia, Summer 2002

"Anyone who critiques philosophy's 'venerable preoccupation with the 'mind' over the 'body' and 'matters of universal concern over particular experiences,' should read this book for the approach Korsmeyer uses to make her argument. Personally, I would add that anyone who thinks, who thinks about eating or drinking, who who even eats or drinks, should read it, too."-Dene Grigar, Texas Women's University, Leonardo Review

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Cornell University Press (September 19, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801488133
• ISBN-13: 978-0801488139
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #579,123 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Important Work in Philosophy of Food and Body, May 8, 2005

By 

Dylan Gordon (Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Making Sense of Taste: Food and Philosophy (Paperback)

A wide-ranging, insightful and long-overdue look at the bodily senses (touch, taste, smell) from the perspectives of (mostly) Anglo-American philosophy, especially as they apply to food and other objects of taste. Korsmeyer skillfully demonstrates both the historical disparagement of the carnal and the necessity of moving beyond an aesthetic that privleges the "higher, objective" senses of vision and hearing at the rest of the body's expense. She convincingly defends the sense of taste and the enjoyment of delicious foods as important aspects of existence, lays bare the intricate web of bias that has at times excluded the bodily, practical and/or domestic from philosophy, and demonstrates the relevance of this exclusion to key problems and debates that infuse the contemporary intellectual climate.

Her understanding of the philosophy of aesthetics is expansive and it shows in the wealth of material she engages in her critique. The arguments for and against taste as an aesthetic sense are lucid and detailed. Korsmeyer also includes many pertinent examples from daily life and experience, as well as physiology and psychology of perception. The quality of argument and example lead one to be truly astouded at how little esteem has been accorded by philosophers to food and its taste, such obviously integral parts of daily life as these are. The price that has been paid for this ignorance is well-demonstrated, along with the interests that have been (and continue to be) privleged by the repression of the sensual.

Some of the subject matter is rather specialized in nature, but the lay reader or gastronome will still find much here of interest, and the prose is clear, welcoming and generally quite fascinating. Any lover of food, and anyone who values their body, should understand the bias against the carnal in the intellectual history of the West, if only to be amazed and incensed to revolt. Any philosophers blind to these issues may now easily educate themselves via this topic and book thereon, one of doubtless personal relevance: their daily sustenance.

Highly recommended to anyone interested in taste (of food, and in general), aesthetics or the body, at the very least as a excellent survey of the key issues in this growing field of study.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, June 17, 2008

By 

Jessica E. Logue "Book Worm" (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Making Sense of Taste: Food and Philosophy (Paperback)

Korsmeyer is an excellent and lucid writer, so it should be unsurprising that in this book she so methodically unravels the distinction between the physical sensation of taste and the philosophical problem of taste (e.g. good taste and its subjectivity). Korsmeyer delves into the ancient idea of the supremecy of vision in the hierarchy of the senses and continues examining the long history of these discussions in philosophy, particularly aesthetics. This is a great book for anyone interested in the growing niche of philosophy and food-related matters.