On Disgust

by Aurel Kolnai, Barry Smith (Editor), Carolyn Korsmeyer (Editor)

Kolnai made a breakthrough in the phenomenology of aversion when he showed the "double intentionality" of emotions like fear, focusing on both the object of fear and the subjects' concern for his own well-being, this being one of the ways in which fear differs from disgust. In a surprising yet persuasive move, Kolnai argues that disgust is never related to inorganic or non-biological matter, and that its arousal by moral objects has an underlying similarity with its arousal by organic material: a particular combination of life and death. Kolnai gives an analytic list of various kinds of disgusting objects (which should not be read just before lunch) and shows how disgust relates to the five senses.

Genres: Philosophy

130 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2003

Reviews

[Tomas Šinkūnas · Rating 5 out of 5]

First thorough analysis of disgust whose insights are still relevant to today's modern sciences.

[Colin · Rating 1 out of 5]

INUTILE