Feet, Lines, Weather, Labyrinth: The Haptic Engagement as a Suggestion for an Ecological Aesthetics

In this paper I present a philosophical approach stemming from the general framework of ecological aesthetics, specifically defined here as a perceptual attitude that entails intimacy, engagement, participation, and care. In order to develop this approach, I lean on some authors that I find sympathetic to my view; particularly important are John Dewey, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Arnold Berleant and Tim Ingold. Following Ingold, I propose a revaluation of what he calls “feet” to highlight the active and mobile nature of perception and a consideration for an ontology of living beings as a fluid meshwork composed by lines. I then propose to call ‘haptic perception’ an inter- and trans-sensorial perceptual approach, according to which the world we constantly move along is objectless, a meshwork continuously made of fluid interwoven lines. To understand this, we need to nurture an aesthetic approach free from the logic of the paradigm consisting of subject/object and of a sheer distinction between ontology and epistemology in favor of a radical relationalism

Cibo, piacere, evoluzione

Recent studies have shown how aesthetics can be positively investigated from an evolutionary point of view. Following this line, the present essay sets to study a new relationship between food and evolutionary aesthetics from a specific angle: I put forward the thesis that the approach with food one has in early childhood is part of the birth of an aesthetic attitude. With this, I mean that the set of taste preferences children develop is a pleasure that can be seen as an aesthetic pleasure. This pleasure –- which I call here naked pleasure – is an inextricable nexus of need, enjoyment, and affection. Beyond scientific investigations showing the importance of early nutrition (especially breast milk) for health, there are many other evidences – supported also by psychological research – in behalf of the idea that taste preferences are set from the very beginning of human life in a close relation with human environment. And this is true also for a phylogenetic perspective, given the proved connection between taste preferences and sexual selection. In the last part – taking the “Marsmellow Test” as example – I sketch a reflection on the ethical, moral and social issues depending from or co-evolving with pleasure and taste preferences

Aesthetics without Objects: Towards a Process-Oriented Aesthetic Perception

In this paper, I suggest an aesthetic model that is consistent with anti-foundational scientific knowledge. How has an aesthetics without foundation to be configured? In contrast to the conventional subject/object model, with idealistic and subjective aesthetics, but also with object-oriented assumptions, I suggest that aesthetics has to be characterized as relational aesthetics in terms of process-oriented perception and that this leads to an Aesthetics Without Objects (AWO) approach. The relational nature of processes means that they do not happen inter-, that is, between ontologically delimited and stable entities, but rather they correspond between relations. I will try to show that AWO matches well with the onto-phenomenological-epistemic and relational models proposed by recent theories in different fields of science, especially in the relational interpretation of quantum physics. The field of aesthetics, then, does not indicate perceptual fixed contents—either subjective or objectual properties—rather it emerges from a correspondence occurring in an engaged and situated perceptual movement, an agencing that is prior to any sharp distinction between a perceiver and a perceived. I propose to call haptic this perceptual agencing. In the first section, I describe the reasons according to which the adoption of AWO seems more correct and advisable, both with respect to contemporary scientific models and to the current ecological changes on the planet. In the second section, I portray some characteristics of AWO. In the third section, I argue that AWO calls for haptic perception. In the fourth section, I briefly draw some meta-aesthetics consequences concerning, on the one side, socio-political issues of AWO and, on the other side, the possibility for a theory in an anti-foundational model. I conclude with a proposal: a process-oriented aesthetics approach has to be understood mainly as an art of thinking. This means rethinking and re-evaluating the idea of aesthetics as an artisan thought

Aldo Giorgio Gargani, In memoriam

Giorgio Gargani non aveva detto a nessuno la verità sul suo male; e il motivo, come avevo intuito non appena lo avevo saputo, non più di dieci giorni prima del suo decesso, e come d’altra parte mi aveva confermato al funerale il figlio maggiore Alberto, era che confessare il suo male avrebbe significato ridurre il carico dei suoi impegni e del suo lavoro. Giorgio Gargani ha lavorato, scritto, studiato, partecipato a conferenze fino a pochi giorni prima della sua morte, e questa passione per l..

Cibo, piacere, evoluzione

Recent studies have shown how aesthetics can be positively investigated from an evolutionary point of view. Following this line, the present essay sets to study a new relationship between food and evolutionary aesthetics from a specific angle: I put forward the thesis that the approach with food one has in early childhood is part of the birth of an aesthetic attitude. With this, I mean that the set of taste preferences children develop is a pleasure that can be seen as an aesthetic pleasure. This pleasure –- which I call here naked pleasure – is an inextricable nexus of need, enjoyment, and affection. Beyond scientific investigations showing the importance of early nutrition (especially breast milk) for health, there are many other evidences – supported also by psychological research – in behalf of the idea that taste preferences are set from the very beginning of human life in a close relation with human environment. And this is true also for a phylogenetic perspective, given the proved connection between taste preferences and sexual selection. In the last part – taking the “Marsmellow Test” as example – I sketch a reflection on the ethical, moral and social issues depending from or co-evolving with pleasure and taste preferences

Mądrość smaku i smak mądrości. Od filozofii jedzenia do filozofowania jedzeniem

  Mądrość smaku i smak mądrości. Od filozofii jedzenia do filozofowania jedzeniem W  niniejszym artykule na podstawie przeglądu moich dotychczasowych poszukiwań w  zakresie filozofii jedzenia i  estetyki gastronomii przedstawiam nową teorię smaku podniebiennego. Wykazawszy bliskie powiązania między jedzeniem a  filozofią w  moich wcześniejszych pracach, zająłem się następnie estetyką smakowania, wykorzystując sformułowane przez Deweya pojęcie doświadczenia oraz multisensoryczne i  ekologiczne podejście do percepcji zaproponowane przez J.J. Gibsona. W  moich najnowszych badaniach skupiam się na wypracowaniu koncepcji percepcji haptycznej, która przeciwstawia się optycznemu modelowi smaku i  smakowania. „Haptyczność” w  moim ujęciu to perceptualne zaangażowanie stanowiące część procesu doświadczania jedzenia. Proponuję odejście od idei „dobrego smaku” stanowiącego wyszkoloną i  nabytą umiejętność smakowania rozumianego jako zadanie oraz zastąpienie jej koncepcją smaku jako nieustannego, praktycznego dostrajania się do środowiska, do którego kształtowania aktywnie się przyczyniamy. Ponieważ większość moich badań dotyczy wina, opisuję takie podejście do smaku i  smakowania za pomocą ukutego przeze mnie neologizmu „epistenologia”.   The wisdom of taste and the taste of wisdom: From philosophy of food to philosophy with food In this essay I propose a new theory of gustatory taste, retracing my research as a philosopher of food and aesthetician of gastronomy. After having solidified the connection between food and philosophy in my early works, I moved towards an aesthetic of gustation based on the notion of experience in a deweyan sense and on the multisensorial and ecological approach to perception as proposed by J.J. Gibson. In my latest works, I am concerned with the developing of the idea of haptic perception, in contrast with an optical approach to tastes and tasting. With “haptics” I mean a perceptual engagement deeply involved in the processes of experiencing food. I suggest we should turn from the idea of “good taste” as the result of trained and acquired skills to taste as a task, to mean the practical and continuous attuning with the environment we actively contribute to shape. As most of my research is based on wine case, I coined the word “epistoenology” to describe such approach to taste and tasting.  Mądrość smaku i smak mądrości. Od filozofii jedzenia do filozofowania jedzeniem W  niniejszym artykule na podstawie przeglądu moich dotychczasowych poszukiwań w  zakresie filozofii jedzenia i  estetyki gastronomii przedstawiam nową teorię smaku podniebiennego. Wykazawszy bliskie powiązania między jedzeniem a  filozofią w  moich wcześniejszych pracach, zająłem się następnie estetyką smakowania, wykorzystując sformułowane przez Deweya pojęcie doświadczenia oraz multisensoryczne i  ekologiczne podejście do percepcji zaproponowane przez J.J. Gibsona. W  moich najnowszych badaniach skupiam się na wypracowaniu koncepcji percepcji haptycznej, która przeciwstawia się optycznemu modelowi smaku i  smakowania. „Haptyczność” w  moim ujęciu to perceptualne zaangażowanie stanowiące część procesu doświadczania jedzenia. Proponuję odejście od idei „dobrego smaku” stanowiącego wyszkoloną i  nabytą umiejętność smakowania rozumianego jako zadanie oraz zastąpienie jej koncepcją smaku jako nieustannego, praktycznego dostrajania się do środowiska, do którego kształtowania aktywnie się przyczyniamy. Ponieważ większość moich badań dotyczy wina, opisuję takie podejście do smaku i  smakowania za pomocą ukutego przeze mnie neologizmu „epistenologia”.   The wisdom of taste and the taste of wisdom: From philosophy of food to philosophy with food In this essay I propose a new theory of gustatory taste, retracing my research as a philosopher of food and aesthetician of gastronomy. After having solidified the connection between food and philosophy in my early works, I moved towards an aesthetic of gustation based on the notion of experience in a deweyan sense and on the multisensorial and ecological approach to perception as proposed by J.J. Gibson. In my latest works, I am concerned with the developing of the idea of haptic perception, in contrast with an optical approach to tastes and tasting. With “haptics” I mean a perceptual engagement deeply involved in the processes of experiencing food. I suggest we should turn from the idea of “good taste” as the result of trained and acquired skills to taste as a task, to mean the practical and continuous attuning with the environment we actively contribute to shape. As most of my research is based on wine case, I coined the word “epistoenology” to describe such approach to taste and tasting

Wineworld: Tasting, Making, Drinking, Being

Ogni vino bevuto ha il suo racconto. Mio proposito: renderne facile l’ascolto e la comprensione a te, lettore, che ami il vino – mi leggi –, o sei disposto a riconoscerlo amico.L. Veronelli 1. Introduction: A little something about the wineworld 1.1. The first time In 1971, Mario Soldati, Italian writer, journalist and expert of wine, published the second series of Vino al Vino, a book about wine production in Italy. In the Introduction titled “Wine as a Work of Art” Soldati stated: Between t..

Introduction

Although recent years have seen a growing philosophical interest in the exploration of the so-called ‘lower senses’, aesthetic research on taste and smell (the situation is partially different with respect to touch) still covers a relatively small domain, confined to a niche. While historical and socio-anthropological research on the two, often said, ‘chemical senses’ are quite copious since decades, philosophy is far from having a proper and specific field of work. Things are changing, howe..