Chris writes:
"Cheerskep, I ignored 80% of your argument for why my notion of "taste" is so
alien to what most people have in mind when they say "Ellen has taste"
because, in our discussions here, I don't care about the common usage of any
important word."
As I said -- and you didn't respond to -- this ensures you will not be
"understood" because whenever you use a word, what will come to people's minds
is
their notion, not yours. So, in effect, you claim you don't care what comes to
your audience's minds when you speak or write. (I don't believe you.)
You go on to say you don't even care what most people have in mind when they
say the word 'art'. "The contents of what most people have in mind is an issue
for marketing experts - and it bores me."
Chris, this is an aesthetics forum. What most people have in mind here with
the word 'art' is not an issue for marketing experts. And if what aestheticians
and artists have in mind with that word bores you, why are you on this forum?
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy. Philosophy requires the ability to hold
focus on an argument. Those whose attention flags or begins to wander
half-way through a sentence or paragraph are not equipped to do this stuff.
The sentence you begin to quote above is actually this: "You ignored 80% of
my argument for why your notion of "taste" is so alien to what most people have
in mind when they say "Ellen has taste" that it amounts to extinguishing the
word, executing it."
The paragraph went on:
"Granted, some words in our language deserve execution, but then it behooves
the executioner to come up with a different word -- or, rather, two different
words: one for his new "concept", and another to salvage the elements in the
old majority notion that need to be preserved."
I'm coming to believe you're not one of those who ignore arguments, they
simply escape you. You're not able to hang in there long enough. I pointed out
tha
t your concept of "taste" implies that my preference for Velcro and zippers
over buttons because of my arthritic thumb is a matter of "taste". You didn't
respond.
But then, you never do tie your notion of taste and its preferences to
anything aesthetic. I'm with you during that brief portion of your day when you
evidently feel there is no fact-of-the-matter about which aesthetic preferences
are "right" or "wrong" (at other portions you convey you do support "good"
taste), but I'm not with you when your usage of 'taste' would apply to any
preference of any kind. William's tying his notion of "taste" to "a sense of
beauty"
is foreign to your stated idea. Which is probably what allows you to think the
choice of which solvent to use in cleaning brushes is a matter of taste. When
your cardiologist tells you that for a man with your problem he prefers a
quintuple-bypass to stents, you just tell him, hey, that's a matter of taste.
I pointed out that your stated concept and usage of "taste" left out entirely
the element of judgment, and it puts you in the seemingly silly position of
asserting the teacher who inculcates what you'd call awful preferences is
nevertheless doing his job of "teaching taste". You didn't respond.
You then say, "I'm interested in what each contributor to the forum has in
mind when noticing that one experience is
so special that it's worth remembering, recommending, and maybe even
subsidizing and teaching others how to have."
All of us wish we had more stamina and acuity to focus on an idea long enough
to see all its implications and scope, but, Chris, you seem to lack it to the
point of disqualification from being taken seriously in forum debates. I have
to believe you never saw how unrestricted the scope of the "experience" is
there. When I first skied, I decided this was an experience to remember, and I
decided to subsidize my kids' having it. Do you see my difficulty with your
stated position, Chris?
Philosophy can sometimes seem like a track meet for thinkers. But track has
no events for guys who can dash only about 20 yards.
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