Comment on My culture also loves music, dancing and telling stories
exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 hours agoEven in puritan cultures that intentionally eat plain food to shun “hedonism”, food becomes a vehicle for virtue signaling. The suffering is a ritual practice. Food, even then, plays a critical cultural role.
Yeah, but one can view that cultural tradition and conclude that their culture does not value the deliciousness of food as much as some other cultures.
Windex007@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
I’m not sure if agree with your conclusion. You might conclude that they put great value on the deliciousness of thier food, but the relationship is inverse: less delicious = greater value.
People of of two cultures might both place high value on decorations, but one culture might view another’s style as tacky.
exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 hours ago
But you described it as “suffering.” The subjective experience of a person in that culture is that the food is less pleasant to consume.
In other words, the enjoyment of the food is actively discouraged, in favor of another criterion (the suffering that comes from eating it). So we can point out that the culture does not prioritize the enjoyment of food as much, and can stand by that particular metric as having directionality on that spectrum.
Windex007@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
I think we agree in principle.
I think if one conceptualize “deliciousness” as a “property that induces joy” and “not deliciousness” as a “property that induces suffering” as being distinct measures, then it makes sense to conceptualize puritan values as saying they don’t value “deliciousness”.
If you conceptualize “deliciousness” as having a negative axis, then Puritains DO value deliciousness, but along the negative axis, which is irregular and noteworthy, but still valuing deliciousness.
Same goes for suffering vs enjoyment. If you consider them independent vs as it being one measure with negative values.
I’m considering them as the same but with a negative axis. I feel like that’s where the gap is. I think ultimately we’re in agreement.