This stack of books has been growing on my desk for the last couple of months -- all remaining to be read. It's called BAS (Book Acquisition Syndrome) -- Kruideniers tend to be certified carriers. (A good many of these were bought used, thus a few look a little rough.)
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Haha, I definitely have a stack to rival that. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one.
ReplyDeleteYou both need shelves (Dave and William). Wendell Berry, Yes! I am using his "Why I am Not Going to Buy a Computer" in my intro to philosophy class to cover technology...as I type this on the computer.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what you would recommend in way of an article or chapter on "philosophy of food". Any thoughts?
Daniel
The "best" (at least the most prolific and widely-known) thinker-writer about food seems to be Michael Pollan. And his latest book, In Defense of Food, comes the closest to wrestling with the issue of "What is food?" He compares the fourth of the average grocery store that stocks actual food (produce, nuts, grains, etc.) with the three-fourths that stocks chemicals and "processed" food, but which is still called "food."
ReplyDeleteThat seems to me to raise the question of whether it's legitimate to mess with the (ahem) ontology of something but keep its original descriptive label ("food"). If words and labels have meaning, shouldn't the chemicalized "food" have a new name, with "food" being reserved for natural, unaltered products?
BTW, where is the Berry essay located? In one of his books? Are you going to include the early 1800's British Luddite movement in the technology discussion?
Thanks for the input!
(P.S. I wrote this and tried submitting it once but it never showed up in the "Comments," so am trying a second time. Apologies if it shows up twice.)
P.S.S. Later tonight I will look in Pollan's book and see if there is a chapter that might serve as a class reading on the "philosophy of food" question. If so I'll send a xerox copy to you.
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