Alogos Aesthesis and the Sense of Taste

Abstract: This article investigates the use of alogos aesthesis in the critical works of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and aims to evaluate its role in Dionysius’ overall approach to aesthetic experience. Dionysius comments on alogos aesthesis in several of his essays, though the account given does not always appear to be coherent. Furthermore, his engagement with alogos aesthesis is often suggestive and does not amount to a comprehensive discussion of the phenomenon, let alone to a full theory of aesthetic taste. The different issues emerging from Dionysius’ discussion of alogos aesthesis in various essays will be analyzed and connections to some of his rough contemporaries ( kritikoi , Cicero, Alexandrian grammarians) highlighted. Finally, it will be suggested that Dionysius’ discussion of alogos aesthesis emerges as one of the earliest surviving attempts to express the “sense of taste” in aesthetic theory.