Laura Viidebaum: "The Sense of Taste"

Laura Viidebaum, NYU: "The Sense of Taste"

Abstract
It is generally understood that taste becomes a philosophical term quite late in the history of philosophy, and that the ancients not only were not interested in the ‘problem of taste’, but also did not have a term for it. This paper aims to counter this view. I will focus on the critical writings of a first century BCE critic Dionysius of Halicarnassus, in particular on his discussion of the elusive concept alogos aesthesis, and hope to demonstrate how questions he raises about aesthetic experiences and the broad impact these have on our everyday and political lives come very close to later debates in aesthetics about taste.