Abstract:
This paper explores the relationship between common sense and taste in the history of aesthetic thought. “Common sense” guarantees the communication of tastes through different modalities. It can either facilitate agreement among individuals, fostering mutual understanding and envisaging a universal aesthetic community, or provoke disagreement. In the former scenario, common sense is literally common to everyone, while in the latter case, it implies diversity and dissensus. By associating the concept of taste with judgement and the sensible (Arendt and Rancière), we scrutinize some contemporary political interpretations of Kantian aesthetics. Through this analysis, we illustrate that common sense is intertwined with certain metaphysical assumptions that not only hinder its claims of universality but also introduce structural paradoxes within the system of aesthetic judgment. In the last section of the article, we explore these paradoxes, proposing another communicability beyond the confines of the judgment of taste or subjective limitations.
Keywords:
common sense, taste, sensible, judgement, universality, public space
How to cite:
Pourhosseini, Behrang. “Taste(s) and common sense(s).” Eidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture 8, no. 1 (2024): 13-38. https://doi.org/10.14394/eidos.jpc.2024.0002.
Author:
Behrang Pourhosseini
University of Paris 8
2 Rue de la Liberté, 93200 Saint-Denis, France;
ETSUP (Ecole Supérieure de Travail Social),
Tour Maine-Montparnasse, 46e étage – 33 avenue du Maine, 75015 Paris, France
https://orcid.org/0009-0002-9936-5220
behrang.poor@gmail.com
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