Taste, Value, Judgement Notes

Taste, Value, Judgement Notes

Taste
In sociology, taste is an individual's personal and cultural patterns of choice and preference. Taste is about drawing distinctions between things such as styles, manners, consumer goods and works of art and relating to these. Social inquiry of taste is about the human ability to judge what is beautiful, good and proper.
(Taken from Mary's presentation)

Beautiful - Aesthetics
Greek philosophers came up with the idea that objects were aesthetically beautiful in and of themselves.
Important to note that they did not posess a wider idea of beauty or how different tribes make themselves beautiful.
Aristotle suggested that the universal elements of beauty were order, symmetry, and definiteness (although now largely discounted).
Modernism changed the idea of western aesthetics and emphasised beauty as the key component of art.

Many have argued over the idea of beauty as something you can understand and not just see.

Schopenhauer: aesthetic contemplation of beauty is the most free that the pure intellect can be from the dictates of will; here we contemplate perfection of form without any kind of worldly agenda, and thus any intrusion of utility or politics would ruin the point of the beauty. It is thus for Schopenhauer one way to fight the suffering.

(Think of Children in Need)

Aesthetics

• Beauty as a Platonic Ideal
• Innate
• Invokes innate appreciation
• beauty is culturally determined

I find it interesting that the idea of beauty is constantly changing. Previously larger women were considered more beautiful, then curvy women, then size zero was considered more aesthetically beautiful.

Good
For Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury beauty just is the sensory version of moral goodness.
The portrait of Dorian Grey is one of many moral fables.

This brings up another interesting idea, the idea of drawing a distinct line between beauty and moral good. Someone can be aesthetically beautiful but if they are morally bad or evil they are no longer considered beautiful.

Proper
Who makes taste?
Social groups form their own ideas of taste and aesthetics, changing contemporary artistic fashions and taste.

Punk created its own aesthetic using bad taste as a means to make social commentary. 

"Taste and consumption are closely linked together; taste as a preference of certain types of clothing, food and other commodities directly affects the consumer choices at the market."

"In showing taste through various everyday actions, people reveal information about their positions in social hierarchies. Preference for certain consumer goods, appearances, manners etc. may signal status because it is conceived as part of the lifestyle of high-status groups. But it is not just that patterns of taste are determined by class structure. Also, people may strategically employ distinctions of taste as resources in maintaining and redefining their social status."

"When taste is explained as status competition, it is assumed, firstly, that people want to show themselves as different from those with lower status and, secondly, that people will imitate those in higher positions."

(All excerpts from Mary's presentation)


Criticisms and Over Consumption
Starting in the 18th Century we see the birth of fashion and large scale production.
People began to buy and acquire things not through need but through an insatiable hedonistic consumption, creating over consumption.

"Theories of taste which build on the ideas of status competition and social emulation have been criticised from various standpoints.
Firstly, it’s not reasonable to trace all social action back to status competition. Marking and claiming status are strong incentives, but people have other motivations as well.
Secondly, it is not plausible to assume that tastes and lifestyles are always diffusing downwards from the upper classes. In some situations the diffusion of tastes may involve quite the opposite direction of emulation."
(Excerpt from Mary's presentation)

Value
Jean Baudrillard was a French philosopher, particularly interested in consumer society. He thought that after World War II our society moved from one of production to one of consumption.
He also began to believe that the objects we consume could be seen as a system of signs that you could decode. "This system is embedded in structures of consumption and leisure that he felt could be analysed sociologically".

Marx and Baudrillard were talking about consumer goods also having a sign exchange value, signs of;

• distinction
• taste
• social status

For example a BMW can have both a use and exchange value (a Marx idea), in that you can drive the BMW or sell it, but Baudrillard was also suggesting the BMW was a sign of social status and distinction. "I own a BMW, I'm better than you, different, richer, better off, etc".


"The concept of social taste is closely associated to social relations and dynamics between people. An understanding of taste as something that is expressed in actions between people helps us to understand many social phenomena that would otherwise be inconceivable.
Aesthetic preferences and attendance to various cultural events are associated with education and social origin. Different socioeconomic groups are likely to have different tastes. Social class is one of the prominent factors structuring taste."
(Excerpt from Mary's presentation)