Seite - 26 - in Limina - Grazer theologische Perspektiven, Band 4:2

24 | www.limina-graz.eu Alessandro De Cesaris | The Taste of Truth autonomous and especially essential» (Coccia 2020, 123). The ontology of taste is completely different from the ontology of vision: it does not recog- nise steady boundaries; it has no place for individuality as such. If we follow the structure of taste, the ancient truth of Anaxagoras becomes utterly evident: mixture is the basic principle of all there is, and life itself can be understood as a steady and unending passing-through of forms and identities. Based on taste, the difference between subject and object is con- tinuously overcome. Here I have only highlighted the physiological roots of this overcoming, but it will express itself much more radically on the aesthetic and symbolic level. 3 Aesthetics of Taste After having analysed taste from the physiological standpoint, I will fo- cus on taste as a proper sense, namely as a perceptual experience. It is this experience that will be extended and metaphorically translated to another dimension, turning taste into a proper symbolic form. 3.1 Alimentation and gourmandise I have remarked that taste is the most necessary and inevitable of the sens- es. However, unlike plants – and animals, in a certain way – the peculiarity of the human experience of taste is that we are able to distinguish alimen- tation from gourmandise. I use this French word because, unlike the English “gluttony”, while referring to a capital sin, “gourmandise” also refers to a much wider and nobler feature of human experience. Being gourmand does not necessary mean being culpable of gluttony. And in a way, gourmandise does express a peculiar trait of humanity: the human being is the only liv- ing being that can authentically be gourmand. The Italian philosopher Umberto Galimberti points out that, among the senses, taste is the most prone to excess because it is the most primitive and animalistic of our senses. When we taste, when we eat, we are like ani- mals (cf. Galimberti 2003, 49). I would like to reverse this statement: taste is precisely the aspect of human experience that distinguishes us in the clearest way from animals. Taste is what defines the human being, its ca- pability to be gourmand is what differentiates it from other life forms. What is gourmandise? In his groundbreaking book Physiology of taste (1825), Anthelme Brillat-Savarin defines it as «a passionate, reasoned and habitual