BS: De gustibus non disputandem est.

Subject: RE: BS: De gustibus non disputandem est.
From: Amos
Date: 01 Jul 06 - 11:56 AM

No sense arguing matters of taste.

My version of the French is "Chàcun å son mauvais gôut", or "Everyone's entitled to their own bad taste."


A

Subject: RE: BS: De gustibus non disputandem est.
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 01 Jul 06 - 11:32 AM

The sense of this Latin phrase is best applied like this:

Speaker A: "I like xxxx better than yyy." (That's MY taste."

Speaker B: "No, I think yyy is the best."

Both of those statements are demonstrably true. The operative part is "I like" and "I think". Both true. No disputing it.

Each speaker can (and will, ad nauseam,) explain why that is his taste, and perhaps the "reasons" are also matters of taste.

The problem comes when the speakers cast the above meanings in absolute terms: Speaker A: "XXX is the best kind of whatsis," leading Speaker B to counter that, on the contrary, "YYY is by far the best whatsis." But all they have done is to again state their taste, probably without recognizing the distinction.

Dave Oesterreich
Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: De gustibus non disputandem est.
From: robomatic
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 05:23 PM

I think it's worthwhile at the very least discussing taste, because a lot of people need to be told what good taste is, and having learned to simulate it, might make society a bit more safe 'n easy for the rest of us. Elsewhere in this forum a well known 'catter posted a story about an Amish gentleman who was killed by a pickup truck which caught him "asleep at the reins". This venerable ol' catter thought this was hilarious, but must have in the back of his or her tiny mind harbored doubts, hence originated a thread destined to bring out those who certainly did not find it humorous.

In America, I have found it pretty easy to debate religion and politics from polar opposites. I have learned to tread with care on truly important subjects, such as food and music.

Subject: RE: BS: De gustibus non disputandem est.
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 10:04 PM

G'day Bobad,

It's simpler to use the characters from the ASCII set ([Alt]0224 and [Alt]0252, respectively) to get "Chacun à son goût" than to expect people to switch UTF-8.

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: BS: De gustibus non disputandem est.
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 28 Jun 06 - 09:58 PM

A unicode character encoding (see here if you want details).

I'm using Firefox on Linux at the moment, On that browser you use View/Character Encoding to change the setting. I can't remember of hand for IE but I doubt it's too different.

Subject: RE: BS: De gustibus non disputandem est.
From: Don Firth
Date: 28 Jun 06 - 09:57 PM

You're disgusted about what?

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: De gustibus non disputandem est.
From: bobad
Date: 28 Jun 06 - 09:54 PM

What's UTF-8 Jon ?

Subject: RE: BS: De gustibus non disputandem est.
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 28 Jun 06 - 09:52 PM

It looks fine in UTF-8, Bobad.

Subject: RE: BS: De gustibus non disputandem est.
From: bobad
Date: 28 Jun 06 - 09:49 PM

What I tried to say was:

"Chacun a son gout" with the appropriate accents which have worked in the past but not tonight, it seems.

Subject: RE: BS: De gustibus non disputandem est.
From: bobad
Date: 28 Jun 06 - 09:41 PM

Chacun à son goût.

Subject: RE: BS: De gustibus non disputandem est.
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 28 Jun 06 - 09:22 PM

"would have told him that it matched his eyes"

'Your Red Scarf matches your eyes'...

Subject: RE: BS: De gustibus non disputandem est.
From: MMario
Date: 28 Jun 06 - 10:50 AM

well - it is true that people will debate stuff they can't change; anything that CAN be changed by debate is in the long run a matter of personal taste and opinion.

Subject: RE: BS: De gustibus non disputandem est.
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 28 Jun 06 - 10:40 AM

Beautiful women can get away with almost anything.    One of those things everyone knows, MMario

Subject: RE: BS: De gustibus non disputandem est.
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 28 Jun 06 - 08:41 AM

MMario,
With all due respect...
that's not been my experience.
Lots of things that clearly don't involve matters of personal taste are very debatable are not at all cut and dried. To me, at least.
On the other hand, for people who hold unshakable beliefs about those matters they might indeed be cut and dried.
Check any news broadcast for lots of examples.

Liz,
If the thread title made you curious, it served its purpose:)

Buck,
The key word is "argue." I assume the elderly Asian gent wanted an explanation of a preference rather than to begin a ebate/argument/dispute about the preference.
I don't think that "de gustibus" is about elucidating preferences. I agree that there is much to be gained from such.
"De gustibus" is about getting other people to adopt one's personal preferences.
Sometimes the assumption seems to be that if someone "understands" my personal preference it will become theirs.
Sometimes the assumption seems to be that I can verbally bully someone into adopting my personal preferences.

I've seen both on Mudcat.

Subject: RE: BS: De gustibus non disputandem est.
From: MMario
Date: 27 Jun 06 - 03:27 PM

Sins- you can get away with a comment like that easier then Buck could.

Subject: RE: BS: De gustibus non disputandem est.
From: SINSULL
Date: 27 Jun 06 - 03:22 PM

Without missing a beat I would have told him that it matched his eyes and then walked away. heh heh

Subject: RE: BS: De gustibus non disputandem est.
From: BuckMulligan
Date: 27 Jun 06 - 03:16 PM

One CAN certainly argue about matters of taste, and sometimes one can learn something. The impact of the phrase to me is that ultimately, there's not going to be a "resolution." I was in a clothing store once, trying on windbreakers. One aisle over was a nearly elderly asian gent also trying on windbreakers. He tried on a brown one, then a green one, then a blue one. Took off the blue one tried on a yellow one, then back to the green one. Finally he turned to me and asked which one I liked. "The green one." I said.

"Why?" he demanded.

Subject: RE: BS: De gustibus non disputandem est.
From: pdq
Date: 27 Jun 06 - 02:08 PM

"De gustibus non est disputandum."

"There is no [point in] disputing about tastes."

Subject: RE: BS: De gustibus non disputandem est.
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 27 Jun 06 - 01:59 PM

Personally, I would have put a translation of the title in... but eh... that's just me....

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: De gustibus non disputandem est.
From: Bill D
Date: 27 Jun 06 - 12:07 PM

well, if one keeps an open mind, they 'may' actually learn something from debates about taste. They may not choose to change much, but they may at least see that there are other ways to go..(it's hard to 'show' people how to tell a joke better, or to explain exactly why this song is elegantly funny, while that one is sorta juvenile and shallow.)

'Taste' is sometimes a matter of habit...sometimes a matter of culture...and sometimes a matter of actual genetic difference in how the brain is wired. We can alter some of these with slow education, but seldom by just informing someone that "mine is better".

Subject: RE: BS: De gustibus non disputandem est.
From: MMario
Date: 27 Jun 06 - 12:03 PM

matters of personal taste = life as we know it.

things that don't involve matters of personal taste usually aren't very debateable as they are pretty much cut and dried.

Subject: RE: BS: De gustibus non disputandem est.
From: Amos
Date: 27 Jun 06 - 11:59 AM

You are challenging the very underpinnings of civilization, Russ -- the largest commodity market in the world is the endless exchange of opinions which want to be bought and sold by their desperate manufacturers, often guaranteed completely devoid of facts and containing less than 1% rationality. You're bucking Big Business here, boyo!! Don't say I didn't warn ya!! LOL!


A

Subject: BS: De gustibus non disputandem est.
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 27 Jun 06 - 11:52 AM

Really?

The phrase or something functionally equivalent appears regularly in mudcat threads (I have been guilty repeatedly) but, in fact, on mudcat we do it all the time.

I got to thinking about this nugget of "common sense" after I made a couple of contributions to the "Funny, traditional songs" thread and got (not completely unexpected) responses along the lines of "That's not funny."


So, here's my question, "Is there actually something to be gained from arguing about matters of personal taste after all?"

Russ (the GUEST who won't go away)