Plato and Kant on Whether a Food Dish can have an Aesthetic Value

Abstract

Can a food dish have an aesthetic value? This question is what I seek, in this thesis, to find an answer to. To respond to the question, in this thesis, I reconstruct and evaluate Plato¿s answer and Immanuel Kant¿s answer on whether a food dish can have an aesthetic value. In Chapter I, I reconstruct and evaluate Plato¿s answer. In Chapter II, I reconstruct and evaluate Kant¿s answer. At the two chapters¿ endings, after my respective examinations of Plato¿s answer and Kant¿s answer, assuming that the yardstick for accepting Plato¿s answer and Kant¿s answer is the persuasiveness of the accounts leading up to their answers for this thesis, I reject both answers on whether a food dish can have an aesthetic value. My rejection of both answers means that, as of now and barring other thinkers¿ answers to the question, whether a food dish can have an aesthetic value remains an open question. As I do not think that the rejection of Plato and Kant¿s respective answers on whether a food dish can have an aesthetic value means that their answers are philosophically worthless, in the Conclusion, I briefly state a couple of pitfalls, which are drawn from my criticisms of the accounts leading up to their answers, that any view on a food dish¿s aesthetic value (if any) should avoid to be persuasive.