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On Interpreting Something as Food Andrea Borghini 1

& Nicola Piras

1

Accepted: 19 November 2020/ # The Author(s) 2020

Abstract

In this paper we discuss the role that individual and collective acts of interpretation play in shaping a metaphysics of food. Our analysis moves from David Kaplan’s recent contention that food is always open to interpretation, and substantially expands its theoretical underpinnings by drawing on recent scholarship on food and social ontology. After setting up the terms of the discussion (§1), we suggest (§2) that the contention can be read subjectively or structurally, and that the latter can be given three sub-readings. We then lay out (§3) three case studies that, we submit, any viable theory of a metaphysics of food should be able to account for. We show that one structural reading—based on the idea of negotiation—swiftly accommodates for the three case studies. We thus conclude that this reading is most promising for charting a metaphysics of food. Keywords Food metaphysics . Food ontology . Food and interpretation . Social ontology “What is food?” is a tricky question. Some foods owe their identity to characteristic biological or chemical aspects, such as pink salt, a wild flounder caught in the open sea, or figs and cherries that are eaten fresh off of a tree. Yet, other foods are identified in virtue of their cultural and social meaning, such as a wedding cake or a croissant. Moreover, some foods— e.g. chewing gum—may never be ingested, while some things that we ingest—e.g. a birth control pill—are not generally regarded as food. Also, what is food for some—say horse meat—may not be food for others. These are just some of the challenges that an all-around answer to the question faces and theoretically-minded philosophers—especially those working in contemporary analytic metaphysics—are well-positioned to address them. In this paper we discuss the role that individual and collective acts of interpretation play in determining what food is and what it isn’t. While we are not assuming that interpretation is the All authors contributed equally to this research.

* Andrea Borghini [email protected] Nicola Piras [email protected]

1

Department of Philosophy, University of Milan, Via Festa del Perdono, 7, 20122 Milan, Italy

1

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Food Ethics

(2021) 6:1

only way for addressing these issues, we regard it as a fruitful device in coping with some problems in the metaphysics of food. Our analysis moves from David Kaplan’s recent contention that food is always open to interpretation,1 and substantially expands its theoretical underpinnings by drawing on recent scholarship on food and social ontology. After setting up the terms of the discussion (§1), we suggest (§2) that the contention can be read subjectively or structurally, and that the latter can be given three sub-readings. We then lay out (§3) three case studies that, we submit, any viable metaphysical theory of food should be able to account for. We show that one structural reading—based on the idea of negot