Standards of taste and varieties of goodness

Abstract

In modern food culture there are some relatively well-known and clear-cut aesthetic standards and etiquettes of taste to which some particular consumer goods or product groups belong and from which they derive their special worth and value. Gerhard Schulze's study Die Erlebnisgesellschaft, of a society emphasising subjectivity and inner experiences, includes many valuable insights and observations concerning the changing nature of modern consumption and the orientation of modern consumers. This chapter includes five principles of consumer demand. They are principle of correspondence, principle of abstraction, principle of accumulation, principle of variation and principle of autosuggestion. The social world perspective offers the best conceptual tools to develop an idea of an objective aesthetics which is open to change and which, in principle, encourages the creation of standards and is potentially receptive to new consumer goods.