ONTOLOGICAL ISSUES AND DIMENSIONS IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF FOOD

Abstract

What is food, and why a philosophy of food? Is food really a subject of philosophical concern? If it is, what are the ramifications and dimensions of the philosophy of food? What does it mean for reflections or discourse on food to assume a philosophical character? Do people really eat food or something else? As we claim to know what food is, is food really food? Do humans eat to live or live to eat? This paper attempts to present what would pass muster and constitute an outline of a modest philosophy of food; implying of course that the inquiry about food is an honest and legitimate philosophical endeavour. The method most suitable for this nature of inquiry is phenomenology