The Aesthetics of Wine

ISBN-13: 9781444337662 / Angielski / Twarda / 2012 / 240 str.

Douglas Burnham;Ole M. Skilleas

Opis

The Aesthetics of Wine shows that discussing wine within the framework of aesthetics both benefits our understanding of wine as a phenomenon, while also challenging some of the basic assumptions of the tradition of aesthetics.

• Analyzes the appreciation of wine as an aesthetic practice.
• Tackles prejudices against bodily senses, showing how they distort traditional aesthetic theory
• Represents the beginnings of a reformulation of general aesthetics

Recenzje

Despite the quibbles registered above, cheers to the authors for a fascinating and stimulating book!  (Kent Bach, The Journal of Aesthetics & Art Criticism, November 2013)

"...rarely does one locate as informative and ingenious analysis of [wine′s] aesthetic qualities as this recent volume by Burnham and Skilleas.

...the authors do every student of philosophical aesthetics a welcome service by outfitting their comprehensive argument with one of the clearest expositions of applied aesthetics and its critical use of cultivated practices, sensory competencies, and intersubjective norms for grounding judgements of taste that this reviewer as yet encountered." (Choice, 1 March 2013)

"Summing Up: Highly recommended.  Lower–level undergraduates and above; general readers.    (Choice, 1 March 2013)

"Fascinating and extremely well informed" ––Jancis Robinson

Spis treści

Acknowledgments viii

Introduction 1

1 Basic Concepts 8

2 Wine as a Vague and Rich Object 35

3 Wine and Cognition 64

4 Aesthetic Attributes in Wine 97

5 Taste and Expertise in Wine 140

6 The Wineworld 176

References 211

Index 220

O autorze

Ole Martin Skilleås is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Bergen. He is the author of Philosophy and Literature (2001); several articles on philosophy, aesthetics, and literature; and is a regular contributor to Vinforum, a Norwegian wine magazine. 

Douglas Burnham is Professor and Personal Chair of Philosophy at Staffordshire University. He has written extensively on the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche and philosophy′s relation to the arts.

Blurb

The topic of wine appreciation appears in a surprising number of seminal texts on aesthetics, those by renowned philosophers ranging from Plato to Hume and Kant. Yet in all of their writings, wine is a philosophical topic that is quickly dismissed as irrelevant, or even dangerous.

The Aesthetics of Wine questions this historic reluctance to ascribe aesthetic attributes to wine, arguing instead that an appreciation of fine wine should be afforded aesthetic consideration and can lead to valuable aesthetic experiences. Moreover, the authors reveal how the dismissal of wine appreciation stems from certain prejudices against the ′bodily′ senses of smell and taste, inherent biases that seriously misrepresent the nature of aesthetic perception and judgment. By tackling these prejudices utilizing a suite of philosophical strategies such as social epistemology and phenomenology, the authors reveal a unique new formulation of the very foundations of aesthetics one that is built on concepts such as context, emergence, inter–subjectivity, practices, and trust.

For philosophers, aesthetes, and wine lovers alike, The Aesthetics of Wine offers unique philosophical insights regarding a celebrated drink with undeniable links to the foundations of Western civilization itself.