Page - 24 - in Limina - Grazer theologische Perspektiven, Volume 4:2

22 | www.limina-graz.eu Alessandro De Cesaris | The Taste of Truth with touching, the situation is far more complex – but there is no life with- out taste. This unavoidability has been well remarked in Western culture. On the one hand, the peculiarity of taste is that it is the only sense that is at the same time a capital sin: no other sin is so strongly connected – almost identified – with one of the five senses. On the other hand, however, the sinful nature of tasting is highly problematic, because it is necessary. Thomas Aquinas underlines this ambiguity of taste in his discussion of gluttony (Thomas 2003, 405). Quoting Saint Gregory the Great, he remarks how «no one can avoid gluttony», because «in eating, pleasure is mixed with need», and «no one sins in regarding what one cannot avoid». For this reason, Thomas will establish a merely quantitative criterion in order to identify the sinful nature of taste: gluttony is not defined by pleasure, but rather by the excess of pleasure over need. From a physiological standpoint taste appears as the most “immediate”, the “lowest” of the senses. However, the history of philosophy gives us an- other reason to think so: according to Aristotle, in fact, «an object of taste is something tangible» (Aristotle 2016, 43). The strong connection between taste and touch helps us identify the sense of taste as most immediate. In fact, unlike vision or hearing, taste requires a direct contact with the object. In the case of taste there is no external medium: the body itself is the me- dium for the sensation. Let us go back to Gregory’s quote: in the case of taste, necessity and pleas- ure cannot be separated. As we will see, the reference to mixture is a fre- quent element in the analysis of taste. However, at this stage of the analysis it is possible to highlight how taste is also the foundation of the structural, physiological connection between life and pleasure. An old prejudice pushes us to think nutrition as an “inferior” function, as opposed to “superior” functions such as desire or rationality. However, this point of view can be reversed: Aristotle’s distinction between vegeta- tive, desiderative and rational soul could be used to emphasise how funda- mental nutrition is (cf. Coccia 2018): there is no life without nourishment. In the case of human beings, being alive means tasting. In the case of taste there is no external medium: the body itself is the medium for the sensation.