Warum sich doch sinnvoll über Geschmack streiten lässt

Abstract

When we use so-called predicates of personal taste to talk about an object, we express our subjective experience of the object. There is no objective truth about whether a given thing is, say, funny. I shall argue that it can make sense to argue about matters of taste anyway because (a) there are good reasons to want to change our interlocutor’s relevant experience, and (b) disputes about taste can bring about such a change. These reasons can be moral or political. My argument serves to connect debates in the philosophy of language, social epistemology, and ideology theory in illuminating ways.