Philocalist

Aesthetics is the philosophy of art, some call it the study of beauty and taste others the study of works of art. It essentially is the experience as mentioned by many philosophers. The unfortunate part about aesthetics the value judgement. Aesthetic judgement goes beyond the sensory they also include taste. Taste unfortunately is governed by societal bias and norms. I dont subscribe to this notion of taste. It has always been about the sensory experience. 

I collect books (read a lot as mentioned in a post earlier) of all kinds and some by authors that are relatively unknown, stamps (started as a kid and still collect them; now a stamp is collected only if it evokes some emotional response in my brain), music (all kinds from western and indian classic to punk rock have written about this too in the past). Taste if I were to define would be a very personal experience. There is no way that the colours i see are the same that you see. Do I find patterns in my taste - yes. Do I find patterns across the mundane things I collect -most certainly yes. There are books that invoke the sound of specific artists in my head. As an example Ayn Rands Anthem will always remind me of a couple of USSR stamps and a specific album by the Canadian band Rush (that album didn’t do to well at the stores, however I love it and have it on Vinyl). I dont collect art - too expensive but if I had the money and a choice it would always be impressionist. There is something about the impressionist artist that draws me. I like cubist paintings too but that is more of an appreciation from Math and not really the experience. 

The word philocalist literally means “lover of beauty” and has a Greek root.  It has been used in the past to denote collector of “things”; though spelt a bit different - philocartist. Are you one of those?

C