Food and Philosophy: Selected Essays

194 Pages·2017·1.607 MB·English

by  Spencer Wertz

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FOODIES, CHEFS, PHILOSOPHERS, AND PEOPLE in the food
and service industries will all find much to relish in this
piquant collection of essays, written over several decades
by Spencer K. Wertz, professor emeritus of philosophy at
Texas Christian University. Wertz’s wide-ranging topics
include food as art, GMOs, the shady world of chocolate,
the five flavors of Chinese cuisine, and the natural, whole- F
foods approach to cuisine Jean-Jacques Rousseau o
prescribed in a novel first published in 1761. Is there such o
a thing as a pornography of food? What is the difference d
between professional and regional cuisine? What magical

symbolism do we partake in at a modern-day dinner party? &
These topics and more are explored in a smorgasbord of

thirteen essays that can be sampled in any order. P
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In addition to his university teaching, administrative duties,
i
and many professional activities, Spencer K. Wertz has l
o
taught wine appreciation classes and served many years on
s
a Dallas-Fort Worth wine panel. For a decade, he also headed
o
a barbecue team that traveled across Texas and New Mexico
p
participating in competitions. Food and Philosophy: Selected
h
Essays is his fifth book.
y
Food & Philosophy
SELECTED ESSAYS
SPENCER K. WERTZ
TCU Press
Fort Worth, Texas
www.prs.tcu.edu
Food and Philosophy

Food and Philosophy

SELECTED ESSAYS
SPENCER K. WERTZ
TCU Press
Fort Worth, Texas
Copyright © 2016 by Spencer K. Wertz
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Wertz, Spencer K., author.
Title: Food and philosophy : selected essays / by Spencer K. Wertz.
Description: Fort Worth, Texas : TCU Press, [2016] | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016016741 | ISBN 9780875656380 (alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Food--Philosophy. | Taste--Philosophy. | Food
consumption--Philosophy. | Cooking--Philosophy.
Classification: LCC B105.F66 W47 2016 | DDC 641.3001--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016016741
TCU Press
TCU Box 298300
Fort Worth, Texas 76129
817.257.7822
www.prs.tcu.edu
To order books: 1.800.826.8911
Designed by Bill Brammer
www.fusion29.com
For Linda,
with whom I shared life
and passion for food

Contents
Acknowledgments IX
Introduction 1
1. Philosophy of Food History 9
2. The Five Flavors and Taoism: Lao Tzu’s Verse Twelve 24
3. The Elements of Taste: How Many Are There? 35
4. Leibniz and Culinary Cognitions: A Speculative Journey 46
5. Taste and Food in Rousseau’s Julie, or The New Heloise 59
6. Hume’s Culinary Interests and the Historiography of Food 72
7. Revel’s Conception of Cuisine: Platonic or Hegelian? 92
8. The Analogy between Food and Art: Tolstoy and Eaton 99
9. Maize: The Native North American Legacy of
Cultural Diversity and Biodiversity 108
10. Are Genetically Modified Foods Good For You? A Pragmatic Answer 133
11. Is There a Pornography of Food? 145
12. Chocolate and Its World 152
13. Eating and Dining: Collingwood’s Anthropology 160
Index 168
About the Author 182

Acknowledgments
Several of these essays appeared in journals over the past two decades.
I wish to thank the editors for permission to reprint these articles. Chapter
1 appeared in Philosophy Today, vol. 50, no. 2 (Summer 2006); chapter 2
appeared in Asian Philosophy: An International Journal of the Philosophical
Traditions of the East, vol. 17, no. 3 (November 2007); chapter 3 was
printed in the Journal of Aesthetic Education, vol. 47, no. 1 (Spring 2013);
chapter 4 appeared in the Journal of Aesthetic Education, vo. 49, no. 3
(Fall 2015); chapter 5 was in GAE, vol. 47, no. 3 (Fall 2013); chapter 6
was published in History Research, vol. 3, no. 2 (February 2013); chapter 7
appeared in the International Journal of Applied Philosophy, vol. 14, no. 1
(2000); chapter 8 was printed in the Journal of Comparative Literature and
Aesthetics, vol. 22, nos. 1-2 (1999); chapter 9 was published in the Journal
of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, vol. 18, no. 2 (2005); chapter
10 was published in the International Journal of Applied Philosophy, vol.
19, no. 1 (Spring 2005); chapter 13 was recently published in Collingwood
and British Idealism Studies, vol. 22, no. 2 (2016). These articles have been
rewritten with each other in mind as representing a fairly new area of
philosophy that I call “Food and Philosophy.” I want to thank the students
in my Master of Liberal Arts (MLA) course, “Food and Philosophy,” who
read most of these essays in one form or another over the years. Their
input improved them considerably.
The acquaintances and scholars of Convivium: The Philosophy and
Food Roundtable have been very helpful with their advice and suggestions
on several of the chapters. I have learned a lot from them individually
(especially through email exchanges) and collectively in conferences or
meetings. Also the members of the Agriculture, Food & Human Values
Society, in their joint meetings with the Association for the Study of Food
and Society, have provided stimulating conferences on food and initiated
much of the intellectual atmosphere and motivation for several of these
essays. Chapter 1 was read at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park,
New York, in June 2004, at a panel titled “Temporality and Food,” part of a
conference titled “From Agriculture to Culture: The Social Transformation
of Food,” which was a series of joint meetings of the Agriculture, Food
& Human Values Society and the Association for the Study of Food and
Society; chapter 2 was presented in Portland, Oregon, in June 2005, at a
Food and Philosophy session in the conference called “Visualizing Food
and Farm,” the series of joint meetings of the Agriculture, Food & Human
Values Society and the Association for the Study of Food and Society;
and chapter 5 was read at Boston University’s Programs in Gastronomy,
Boston, Massachusetts, in June 2006, at a food conference entitled “Place,