About this episode

Scott Samuelson discusses the philosophical significance of food and taste in human life.

Scott Samuelson is a professor of philosophy at Iowa State University and the author of several books. His latest work is called To Taste: On Cooking and the Good Life. Greg asks Scott about his views on why philosophy and aesthetics have sidelined food and actual taste in favor of nutrition, consumer preference, or narrow ethics. Scott argues food, cooking, and communal meals are central to human meaning, ethics, and hospitality, and that taste is a form of wisdom joining truth, goodness, and beauty while bridging the labels of subjective, objective, and intersubjective judgment. He links taste to style through cooking as an active practice of tasting and adjusting, critiques consumer capitalism’s push toward radical aesthetic subjectivity and “food porn,” and the subject of tradition as an evolving conversation. They also connect food to education via metaphors of digestion, emphasizing initiation, attention, and the cultivation of judgment and style, and Scott defends ‘festivity’ and ‘shared meals' as two foundations for intimacy and flourishing. *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*

People in this episode

Host: Greg LaBlanc

Guest: Scott Samuelson

Topics covered

• philosophy
• food
• taste
• cooking
• ethics
• tradition
• education

Keywords

• philosophy
• food
• taste
• cooking

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Iowa State University

Books & works: To Taste: On Cooking and the Good Life

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