Taste,
Bad Taste, Tastelessness
May
25-28, 2018
Ascea,
Italy
~call
for papers~
Taste
is a common sense concept. Almost everyone thinks that they have
taste – indeed, thinks they have good taste – in such things as
conduct, arts, dress, design, cuisine, and so on. But many of them
are also wrong. Frank Sibley described taste as an ability involving
perceptiveness, sensitivity, aesthetic discrimination, and
appreciation, and further noted that taste “is a somewhat more rare
capacity than other human capacities”; relativists and skeptics
would dispute this, and argue that taste is little more than liking,
or preferring, some things over others. This call is for fresh and
detailed examinations of the logic of the concept of ‘taste’.
Rehearsals and exegesis of tradition or history (e.g. Hume, Kant,
etc.), sociology (e.g. Bourdieu), empiricism (e.g. Brunius) fall
outside the scope of this conference as does criticism of such types
of speculations unless significantly advancing philosophical
explication of the concept of ‘taste’.
The
VIIIth
International Wassard Elea Symposium
is dedicated to ransacking this core topic in aesthetics. We seek to
engage philosophers and scholars in a conceptual analysis of what it
means to have – or lack – taste. To this end, we invite papers
that focus on, e.g., the following topics:
1.
Taste as liking the right things for the right reasons—and bad
taste as the reverse;
2.
Taste as a capacity, and how it can be improved;
3.
Distinction(s) between bad taste and tastelessness;
4.
Relationships between liking and appraising or appreciating;
5.
Taste being a kind of judgement, verdict or valuation;
6.
Distinction(s) between lapses and mistakes of taste and flaws in
taste.
Wassard
Elea
invites philosophers and aestheticians to submit papers on the topics
of this year’s theme. Sessions of 90 min. include speaker,
commentator and open discussion (40/20/30). Participants whose papers
are accepted are expected to also prepare a commentary on another
presentation at the meeting. All suitable contributions are published
in our journal, Wassard
Elea Rivista.
Inquiries
are welcome.
Full papers (format: word) should be sent directly to co-organizers:
Prof. Lars Aagaard-Mogensen, Italy: wassardelea@gmail.com,
or Prof. Jane Forsey, University of Winnipeg, Canada:
j.forsey@uwinnipeg.ca.
Deadline
for submissions: February 15, 2018.
There
is no registration fee; details about accommodations will be posted
in due course.
Wassard
Elea
Refugium
for writers, artists, composers, and scholars in Southern Italy
Wassardelea.blogspot.it
Posts
