Q&A: Emotions/Feelings and Objectivity
Emotions/Feelings and Objectivity
Question
In several places you told the story of Lyasoff about the waterfall of Kobritz, and argued there that emotion is an expression of something objective in the world (that the waterfall is beautiful).
Do you think this pattern can apply to all the senses? For example, someone could claim that a certain dish is tasty, and then argue that if I don’t find it tasty, something is defective in me. I do not "see" the aesthetics of the dish.
The same argument could be made regarding music, and even certain smells (the objectivity of aesthetics with respect to music and smells).
What is your view on the matter? Are all these indeed possessed of objective aesthetics, or do you distinguish between some senses and others (for example, sight yes, but taste no). If that is option B, what is your reasoning?
In other words, I am asking about the nature of aesthetics.
Thank you!
Answer
I don’t know how to give a general answer to this. Usually the sense of taste is not accompanied by any value judgment, and therefore people say that there’s no arguing about taste and smell. But there are connoisseurs who claim that there is something objective in this (as with wine, for example). Maybe.
Discussion on Answer
No
Yes, it is definitely tricky to claim this about taste and smell.
But the question that comes up here is whether one can say something intelligent about it, for example, that there is some strong intuition that aesthetics is connected to the sense of sight but not to the sense of taste.
Or of course some other reason.
Because on the face of it, it seems that if one applies the idea of expressing emotion/feeling to objects perceived through the sense of sight, there is no apparent reason not to apply it to the sense of taste as well.
Do you have any particular insights on the matter?