On Taste and Connoisseurship

By Doug Smith | March 1, 2018

Is it important or worthwhile to cultivate refined taste or connoisseurship in one’s aesthetic preferences? This often seems to be one of the aims of formal education. We’ll look at some Western thinking around the notion of refined pleasures, and then look at some of the Buddha’s thoughts on the same topic.

Some suttas mentioned:

Puṇṇovāda Sutta (SN 35.88)
Kalahavivāda Sutta (Snp. 4.11)
Spiritual (SN 36.31)

Other texts:

Massimo Pigliucci: On Becoming a Stoic
On the Skillfulness of Refined Taste
Richard Gombrich, “Buddhist Aesthetics?” JOCBS 2013 (5), 136-160.

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