- Running the Institute of Philosophy, in the School of Advanced Study in University of London. The Institute exists to... moreRunning the Institute of Philosophy, in the School of Advanced Study in University of London. The Institute exists to promote research in philosophy nationally and international. We run research projects, host post-doctoral researchers and visiting fellows and organise many conferences and workshops.
The Institute houses the interdisciplinary Centre for the the Study of the Sense: http://thecenses.org/
as well as the Centre for Logic and Language, and the Centre for Computing in Philosophy. It is the home of PhilPapers, run by Dr David Bourget, and provides support for Philosophy Bites run by Nigel Warbuton and David Edmonds.
The Institute has several partnerships with UK, European and US universities and participates in several research networks. See the website for details: www.philosophy.sas.ac.uk
We have has several successful collaborations with philosophy departments in the UK and the rest of the world and we welcome such opportunities.
My own philosophical interests are in the philosophy of mind, philosophy of language and cognitive science. I work on knowledge of language, self-knowledge, predicates of taste, flavour perception and neuroscience. I also write about the philosophy of wine.edit
Theories of perception have traditionally dismissed the sense of smell as a notoriously variable and highly subjective sense, mainly because it does not easily fit into accounts of perception based on visual experience. So far,... more
Theories of perception have traditionally dismissed the sense of smell as a notoriously variable and highly subjective sense, mainly because it does not easily fit into accounts of perception based on visual experience. So far, philosophical questions about the objects of olfactory perception have started by considering the nature of olfactory experience. However, there is no philosophically neutral or agreed conception of olfactory experience: it all depends on what one thinks odors are. We examine the existing philosophical methodology for addressing our sense of smell: on the one hand appeals to phenomenology that focus on the experiential dimensions of odor perception and on the other approaches that look at odor sources and their material dimensions. We show that neither strategy provides enough information to account for the human sense of smell and argue that the inclusion of the missing dimension of biology, with its concern for the function (or functions) of olfaction, provides the means to develop a satisfactory and empirically informed philosophy of smell.
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Olfactory dysfunction often has severe consequences on patients’ quality of life. The most common complaint in these patients is their reduced enjoyment of food in both patients with olfactory loss and parosmia. How the different types of... more
Olfactory dysfunction often has severe consequences on patients’ quality of life. The most common complaint in these patients is their reduced enjoyment of food in both patients with olfactory loss and parosmia. How the different types of olfactory dysfunction differ in relation to food and cooking habits, sensory awareness, and food-related quality of life has not yet received much attention. By applying questionnaires on cooking, food, olfactory function, weight changes, sensory awareness, and food-related quality of life, we investigated how various aspects of eating differ between participants with olfactory loss (n = 271), parosmia (n = 251), and normosmic controls (n = 166). Cooking habits in olfactory dysfunction revealed pronounced differences as compared with normosmic controls. Cooking with olfactory dysfunction was associated with, e.g., a lack of comfort and inspiration for cooking and an inability to make new foods successfully. Significant differences in cooking were a...
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Background The impact of qualitative olfactory disorders is underestimated. Parosmia, the distorted perception of familiar odors, and phantosmia, the experience of odors in the absence of a stimulus, can arise following postinfectious... more
Background The impact of qualitative olfactory disorders is underestimated. Parosmia, the distorted perception of familiar odors, and phantosmia, the experience of odors in the absence of a stimulus, can arise following postinfectious anosmia, and the incidences of both have increased substantially since the outbreak of COVID-19. Objective The aims of this study are to explore the symptoms and sequalae of postinfectious olfactory dysfunction syndrome using unstructured and unsolicited threads from social media, and to articulate the perspectives and concerns of patients affected by these debilitating olfactory disorders. Methods A thematic analysis and content analysis of posts in the AbScent Parosmia and Phantosmia Support group on Facebook was conducted between June and December 2020. Results In this paper, we identify a novel symptom, olfactory perseveration, which is a triggered, identifiable, and usually unpleasant olfactory percept that persists in the absence of an ongoing st...
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In a preregistered, cross-sectional study, we investigated whether olfactory loss is a reliable predictor of COVID-19 using a crowdsourced questionnaire in 23 languages to assess symptoms in individuals self-reporting recent respiratory... more
In a preregistered, cross-sectional study, we investigated whether olfactory loss is a reliable predictor of COVID-19 using a crowdsourced questionnaire in 23 languages to assess symptoms in individuals self-reporting recent respiratory illness. We quantified changes in chemosensory abilities during the course of the respiratory illness using 0–100 visual analog scales (VAS) for participants reporting a positive (C19+; n = 4148) or negative (C19−; n = 546) COVID-19 laboratory test outcome. Logistic regression models identified univariate and multivariate predictors of COVID-19 status and post-COVID-19 olfactory recovery. Both C19+ and C19− groups exhibited smell loss, but it was significantly larger in C19+ participants (mean ± SD, C19+: −82.5 ± 27.2 points; C19−: −59.8 ± 37.7). Smell loss during illness was the best predictor of COVID-19 in both univariate and multivariate models (ROC AUC = 0.72). Additional variables provide negligible model improvement. VAS ratings of smell loss ...
Research Interests: Multivariate Statistics, Prediction, Medicine, Logistic Regression, Multivariate Analysis, and 10 moreBiological Sciences, Visual Analogue Scale, Hyposmia, Chemical Senses, Olfactory perception, Anosmia, Univariate Analysis, Subclinical Infection, Coronavirus COVID-19, and Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
Perceptual experience enables us to know features of objects in our environment. But what does the experience of tasting enable us to know? By tasting we discover the tastes of foods or liquids; but what are tastes? An objectivist sees... more
Perceptual experience enables us to know features of objects in our environment. But what does the experience of tasting enable us to know? By tasting we discover the tastes of foods or liquids; but what are tastes? An objectivist sees tastes as properties of foods and drinks, which are there anyway, independent of how we experience them. On this view, tasting provides us with perceptual knowledge of real features of foods and liquids. By contrast, a subjectivist sees tastes as just features of our own experience: sensations on the tongue answerable to nothing other than themselves. Tastes, on this view, are not in the foods; rather foods give rise to tastes in us. A metaphysics of tastes that sees them not as properties of foods but as parts of our experience makes the epistemology of tasting an aspect of self-knowledge. Knowing how something tastes is being immediately aware of a certain sort of experience that occurs when we are eating or drinking. On this view, we can know all a...
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Olfactory dysfunction is amongst the many symptoms of Long COVID. Whilst most people that experience smell loss post COVID-19 recover their sense of smell and taste within a few weeks, about 10% of cases experience long-term problems, and... more
Olfactory dysfunction is amongst the many symptoms of Long COVID. Whilst most people that experience smell loss post COVID-19 recover their sense of smell and taste within a few weeks, about 10% of cases experience long-term problems, and their smell recovery journey often begins a few months later when everyday items start to smell distorted. This is known as parosmia. The aim of this study was to identify the key food triggers of parosmic distortions and investigate the relationship between distortion and disgust in order to establish the impact of parosmia on diet and quality of life. In this cross-sectional study (n = 727), respondents experiencing smell distortions completed a questionnaire covering aspects of smell loss, parosmia and the associated change in valence of everyday items. There was a significant correlation between strength and disgust (p < 0.0001), and when the selected items were reported as distorted, they were described as either unpleasant or gag-inducing ...
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Theories of perception have traditionally dismissed the sense of smell as a notoriously variable and highly subjective sense, mainly because it does not easily fit into accounts of perception based on visual experience. So far,... more
Theories of perception have traditionally dismissed the sense of smell as a notoriously variable and highly subjective sense, mainly because it does not easily fit into accounts of perception based on visual experience. So far, philosophical questions about the objects of olfactory perception have started by considering the nature of olfactory experience. However, there is no philosophically neutral or agreed conception of olfactory experience: it all depends on what one thinks odors are. We examine the existing philosophical methodology for addressing our sense of smell: on the one hand appeals to phenomenology that focus on the experiential dimensions of odor perception and on the other approaches that look at odor sources and their material dimensions. We show that neither strategy provides enough information to account for the human sense of smell and argue that the inclusion of the missing dimension of biology, with its concern for the function (or functions) of olfaction, provides the means to develop a satisfactory and empirically informed philosophy of smell.
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Recently, psychologists and neuroscientists have provided a great deal of evidence showing that perceptual experiences are mostly multimodal. As perceivers, we don’t usually recognize them as such. We think of the experiences we are... more
Recently, psychologists and neuroscientists have provided a great deal of evidence showing that perceptual experiences are mostly multimodal. As perceivers, we don’t usually recognize them as such. We think of the experiences we are having as either visual, or auditory or tactile, not realising that they often arise from the fusion of different sensory inputs. The experience of tasting something is one such case. What we call ‘taste’ is the result of the multisensory integration of touch taste and smell. These unified flavour experiences provide a challenge when trying to reconcile the underlying processing story with the conscious experience of subjects, but they also challenge assumptions about our access to our own experiences and whether how we conceive of those experiences plays any in role in accounting for their ultimate nature.
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Can there be a subject matter of genuine dispute between twoparticipants where neither side has overlooked any relevant fact, whereneither side has made a mistake and where both claim to be gettingmatters right? Would such a case, in... more
Can there be a subject matter of genuine dispute between twoparticipants where neither side has overlooked any relevant fact, whereneither side has made a mistake and where both claim to be gettingmatters right? Would such a case, in effect, amount to saying that thereis no fact of the matter and that the parties must agree to differ, orcould it ever be correct to say that they were both right? The issue forthis paper is whether such a possibility makes sense and whether thereare any real such cases. Recently, Crispin Wright has attempted tomake room for such possibilities, calling the ensuing doctrine, TrueRelativism (Wright 2001, 2004). According to Wright, if there aredisputes where neither side is in error, cognitively speaking, then it maybe correct to say that the truth of the matter is relative to, and the factspartly constituted by, each participant’s starting point or perspective.Are there any plausible cases of such disputes? In what follows I offerwhat appears to be the best candidate, to be found, somewhatsurprisingly, in the work of Donald Davidson (— someone usually takento be the chief opponent of relativism). It involves a plausible casewhere there are two equally adequate rival interpretations of an agent’smental states, no grounds for choosing between them, and no reasonfor saying either is mistaken. But before we look at that case let usconsider the issue more generally.
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ABSTRACT: Differences of evaluative judgments are often assumed to be a reason to prefer pluralism, relativism or subjectivism to objectivism, and this preference is even more pronounced in the case of judgements of taste. A comparison... more
ABSTRACT: Differences of evaluative judgments are often assumed to be a reason to prefer pluralism, relativism or subjectivism to objectivism, and this preference is even more pronounced in the case of judgements of taste. A comparison between perceptual and moral disagreements, however, enables us to understand that differences in judgments may be due to a difference in access to the situation or object, and not necessarily to a difference in value. The feeling of irresolvable differences that sometimes arises in situations of evaluation, may not hold in the absence of objective values and / or common values, but be due to a difficulty or inability to capture the perspective, or circumstances of assessment wherein the other agents are placed.
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Professional tasters will tell you that despite providing an occasional source of joy, tasting wines is hard work. It takes concentrated effort to get to grips with the liquid in the glass, to fix its character in mind and come to a... more
Professional tasters will tell you that despite providing an occasional source of joy, tasting wines is hard work. It takes concentrated effort to get to grips with the liquid in the glass, to fix its character in mind and come to a judgment about its quality. Skills are needed that developed gradually over time and had to be learned. There is always room for improvement and the tasting of new wines offers opportunities to gain more knowledge and experience. By contrast, many people find the idea that wine tasting is hard and that we have to learn or be taught how to taste as fanciful as the idea of being taught how to see or to hear. Nothing could be easier than tasting foods or drinks. Sensations of taste begin as soon as food or drink enters the mouth. We sip or chew, then swallow. The sensations are fleeting and transient, which admittedly makes them hard to concentrate on, though they make their presence felt by leaving us with impressions of liking or disliking. So is wine tasting really that hard? The difference between these two perspectives on tasting is surprising. They leave very little room for one another&#39;s view and yet they are based directly on the personal experiences of the respective tasters. So who is right? They are both wont to express a certain incredulity about the other&#39;s stance on tasting but the very different way in which they diagnose their disagreement offers us a potential insight into the recent speight of articles professing skepticism about wine expertise.
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tion of linguistics. The case against Chomsky is based on two principal claims. First, that we can separate the study of linguistic competence from the study of its outputs: only the latter belongs to linguistic inquiry. Second, Chomsky’s... more
tion of linguistics. The case against Chomsky is based on two principal claims. First, that we can separate the study of linguistic competence from the study of its outputs: only the latter belongs to linguistic inquiry. Second, Chomsky’s account of a speaker’s competence as consisiting in the mental representation of rules of a grammar for his language is mis-taken. I shall argue, fi rst, that Devitt fails to make a case for separating the study of outputs from the study of competence, and second, that Devitt mis-characterises Chomsky’s account of competence, and so his objections miss their target. Chomsky’s own views come close to a denial that speak-er’s have knowledge of their language. But a satisfactory account of what speakers are able to do will need to ascribe them linguistic knowledge that they use to speak and understand. I shall explore a conception of speaker’s knowledge of language that confi rms Chomsky’s mentalist view of linguistics but which is immune to Devitt’s ...
Full tasting two-dimensional similarity space for FR experts. (Blue single malt, black blends, red grain whisky). (DOCX 17Â kb)
Recent anecdotal and scientific reports have provided evidence of a link between COVID-19 and chemosensory impairments such as anosmia. However, these reports have downplayed or failed to distinguish potential effects on taste, ignored... more
Recent anecdotal and scientific reports have provided evidence of a link between COVID-19 and chemosensory impairments such as anosmia. However, these reports have downplayed or failed to distinguish potential effects on taste, ignored chemesthesis, generally lacked quantitative measurements, were mostly restricted to data from single countries. Here, we report the development, implementation and initial results of a multi-lingual, international questionnaire to assess self-reported quantity and quality of perception in three distinct chemosensory modalities (smell, taste, and chemesthesis) before and during COVID-19. In the first 11 days after questionnaire launch, 4039 participants (2913 women, 1118 men, 8 other, ages 19-79) reported a COVID-19 diagnosis either via laboratory tests or clinical assessment. Importantly, smell, taste and chemesthetic function were each significantly reduced compared to their status before the disease. Difference scores (maximum possible change ±100) ...
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Disagreements about what is delicious, what is funny, what is morally acceptable can lead to intractable disputes between parties holding opposing views of a given subject. How should we think of such disputes? Do they always amount to... more
Disagreements about what is delicious, what is funny, what is morally acceptable can lead to intractable disputes between parties holding opposing views of a given subject. How should we think of such disputes? Do they always amount to genuine disagreements? The answer will depend on how we understand disagreement and how we should think about the meaning and truth of statements in these areas of discourse. I shall consider cases of dispute and disagreement where relativism about truth appears to give the best explanation of the phenomena. I will argue that that we cannot explain the relativist option merely by relativizing truth to an extra parameter, such as a standard of taste, or a sense of humour. Instead, I will focus on cases where the dispute concerns whether either of the two opposing parties is judging in accordance with an existing standard, and I shall suggest that how we should think of these cases bears important affinities with rule-following considerations found in the later Wittgenstein’s work.
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The new Chomskian orthodoxy denies that our linguistic competence gives us knowledge of a language, and that the representations in the language faculty are representations of anything. In reply, I have argued that through their... more
The new Chomskian orthodoxy denies that our linguistic competence gives us knowledge of a language, and that the representations in the language faculty are representations of anything. In reply, I have argued that through their intuitions speaker/hearers, (but not their language faculties) have knowledge of language, though not of any externally existing language. In order to count as knowledge, these intuitions must track linguistic facts represented in the language faculty. I defend this idea against the objections Collins has raised to such an account.
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Five patients who had undergone radiation therapy for cerebral tumors and whose conditions were deteriorating were examined by means of positron emission tomography (PET) with [18F] fluorodeoxyglucose. All five cases had similar clinical... more
Five patients who had undergone radiation therapy for cerebral tumors and whose conditions were deteriorating were examined by means of positron emission tomography (PET) with [18F] fluorodeoxyglucose. All five cases had similar clinical and computed tomographic findings. Using the PET technique the two cases of radiation necrosis were distinguished from the three recurrent tumors. In the two cases of radiation necrosis the rate of glucose utilization in the lesion was markedly reduced compared with the normal brain parenchyma. In the recurrent gliomas, however, the glucose metabolic rate was elevated. All five diagnoses were confirmed by biopsy or autopsy.
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2,5-Diaziridinyl-3,6-bis(carboethoxyamino)-1,4-benzoquinone (AZQ; Diaziquone, NSC 182986) is a rationally designed antitumor drug possessing sufficient lipid solubility to allow penetration into the central nervous system. Thirty-one... more
2,5-Diaziridinyl-3,6-bis(carboethoxyamino)-1,4-benzoquinone (AZQ; Diaziquone, NSC 182986) is a rationally designed antitumor drug possessing sufficient lipid solubility to allow penetration into the central nervous system. Thirty-one patients with high-grade glioma and progressive disease following radiation, with or without previous chemotherapy, have been treated with 144 cycles of drug, consisting of 20 mg/sq m given as an i.v. infusion on Days 1 and 8 of a 28-day cycle. Responses were measured by serial computer tomography scanning. Of the 28 evaluable patients, 6 (21%) had limited improvement (10 to 40% reduction in tumor size) on computer tomography scan, 10 (36%) had disease stabilization, and 12 (43%) had progressive disease. The drug was well tolerated clinically, with little acute toxicity. The major toxicity was myelosuppression, which appeared cumulative, using this dose regimen. AZQ was measurable in both tumor tissue and tumor cyst fluid in patients on therapy. Plasma ...
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Positron emission tomography (PET) scanning with [18F]-2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) was used to study 59 patients with astrocytomas and three patients with other cerebral mass lesions. Suppression of gray-matter glucose utilization... more
Positron emission tomography (PET) scanning with [18F]-2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) was used to study 59 patients with astrocytomas and three patients with other cerebral mass lesions. Suppression of gray-matter glucose utilization ranging from 8% to 64% (mean, 30%) was seen in 92% of cases. Three categories of suppression were apparent, with the greatest degrees of suppression occurring in edematous gray matter adjacent to mass lesions. Lesser degrees of suppression were noted in nonedematous structures (normal attenuation on computed tomographic scan) adjacent to the lesion. Significant suppression was also present in gray matter spatially remote from but functionally linked to the site of the lesion. This approach may become a useful tool for improved understanding of the clinical presentation of certain pathologic entities and for evaluation of disease progression and response to treatment.
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Explants derived from human gliomas have been characterized with respect to their cellular outgrowth pattern after 1-22 weeks in culture. A mat of cells which were fibronectin (FN)-positive and glial fibrillary acidic protein... more
Explants derived from human gliomas have been characterized with respect to their cellular outgrowth pattern after 1-22 weeks in culture. A mat of cells which were fibronectin (FN)-positive and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP)-negative (hereafter designated FN+ cells) with a polygonal, flat morphology covered the growth substrate in a swirling pattern for a mean diameter of 9.2 mm around FN+ explants. FN+ cells showed ruffled plasmalemma, dilated rough endoplasmic reticulin (RDR), and extracellular filamentous strands. Rare desmosomes were compatible with at most minor leptomeningeal components or differentiation. FN+ cells predominated in six of seven cultures at passage 2, and their features were the same from various high-grade gliomas and gliosarcoma. Around other explants, elongated or stellate cells which were GFAP+ and FN- grew in a netlike pattern with little cell-to-cell contact. These GFAP+ cells surrounded explants at a mean diameter of 2 mm, substantially less than...
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We tested fluorescent and light microscopic markers to improve recognition of pituitary adenomas at biopsy. The optimal reagent was 100 mg/L of fluoresceinated Ricinus communis agglutinin 120 (RCA 120) lectin plus 3 mg/L of propidium... more
We tested fluorescent and light microscopic markers to improve recognition of pituitary adenomas at biopsy. The optimal reagent was 100 mg/L of fluoresceinated Ricinus communis agglutinin 120 (RCA 120) lectin plus 3 mg/L of propidium iodide. The refrigerated solution was immediately available for use on routine frozen sections. The sections were stained for one minute and viewed immediately after they were rinsed with saline and coverslips applied. Fluorescein-labeled RCA 120, which binds galactose, localized vascular stroma. Propidium iodide, which binds nucleic acids, stained nuclei. Stromal configuration, nuclear morphology, and cell to stroma ratio were illuminated and used to distinguish adenoma from adenohypophysis. We also describe a method utilizing peroxidase-conjugated RCA 120 that demonstrates the same features by light microscopy. Fluoresceinated RCA 120-stained vessels and stroma of routinely processed material more reliably than hematoxylin-eosin or labeled antibody to...
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Authors have studied the ultrastructure of endothelial cells in the microvessels of malignant and benign gliomas and in particular, the numbers of tubular bodies (Weibel-Palade) in endothelial cells of glioma microvessels in related with... more
Authors have studied the ultrastructure of endothelial cells in the microvessels of malignant and benign gliomas and in particular, the numbers of tubular bodies (Weibel-Palade) in endothelial cells of glioma microvessels in related with blood vessel proliferation. Glioblastoma 6, astrocytoma grade II 1, oligodendroglioma 1 and 2 samples of non-tumor brain tissue were analyzed quantitatively using light and electron microscope with Karnovski fixative. All tissues were obtained from the center, the intermediate and the margin in each tumor tissue and just outside of the tumor at operation. 389 microvessels were examined in the total gliomas electronmicroscopically. Tubular body was first described by Weibel and Palade in the vascular endothelial cells of various organs in both man and animals. This is now considered to be an organelle specific to the endothelial cell, but its function is still unknown. Tubular body observed in the endothelial cells of the gliomas vessels consisted of...
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Neurofibrillary tangles composed of paired helical filaments were found in a human ganglioglioma. This is the first reported occurrence of neurofibrillary tangles in a neoplasm. These tangles were visible light microscopically with... more
Neurofibrillary tangles composed of paired helical filaments were found in a human ganglioglioma. This is the first reported occurrence of neurofibrillary tangles in a neoplasm. These tangles were visible light microscopically with hematoxylin-eosin and Bodian&amp;amp;#39;s stains. They were confirmed as neurofibrillary tangles with Congo red staining under polarized light and with thioflavine S fluorescence. Untrastructurally, the tangles were composed of 10-nm filaments twisted in a helix with 80 nm between constructions. Thus, neoplastic proliferation does not preclude production of paired helical filaments. Cells grew from explants of this tumor, but no paired helical filaments were found in the cells examined. Two other gangliogliomas and normal brain tissue studies by the same procedures did not show paired helical filaments. Gangliogliomas that contain neurofibrillary tangles provide an alternative source of abnormal filaments for analysis.
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Every speaker of a language knows a bewildering variety of linguistic facts, and will come to know many more. It is nowledge that connects sound and meaning. Questions about the nature of this knowledge cannot be separated from... more
Every speaker of a language knows a bewildering variety of linguistic facts, and will come to know many more. It is nowledge that connects sound and meaning. Questions about the nature of this knowledge cannot be separated from fundamental questions about the nature of language. The conception of language we should adopt depends on the part it plays in explaining our knowledge of language. This article explores options in accounting for language, and our knowledge of language, and defends the view that individuals' languages are constituted by the standing knowledge they carry from one speech situation to another.
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MIND ASSOCIATION OCCASIONAL SERIES This series consists of occasional volumes of original papers on predefined themes. The Mind Association nominates an editor or editors for each collection, and may co-operate with other bodies in... more
MIND ASSOCIATION OCCASIONAL SERIES This series consists of occasional volumes of original papers on predefined themes. The Mind Association nominates an editor or editors for each collection, and may co-operate with other bodies in promoting conferences or other ...
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Professional tasters will tell you that despite providing an occasional source of joy, tasting wines is hard work. It takes concentrated effort to get to grips with the liquid in the glass, to fix its character in mind and come to a... more
Professional tasters will tell you that despite providing an occasional source of joy, tasting wines is hard work. It takes concentrated effort to get to grips with the liquid in the glass, to fix its character in mind and come to a judgment about its quality. Skills are needed that developed gradually over time and had to be learned. There is always room for improvement and the tasting of new wines offers opportunities to gain more knowledge and experience. By contrast, many people find the idea that wine tasting is hard and that we have to learn or be taught how to taste as fanciful as the idea of being taught how to see or to hear. Nothing could be easier than tasting foods or drinks. Sensations of taste begin as soon as food or drink enters the mouth. We sip or chew, then swallow. The sensations are fleeting and transient, which admittedly makes them hard to concentrate on, though they make their presence felt by leaving us with impressions of liking or disliking. So is wine tasting really that hard? The difference between these two perspectives on tasting is surprising. They leave very little room for one another's view and yet they are based directly on the personal experiences of the respective tasters. So who is right? They are both wont to express a certain incredulity about the other's stance on tasting but the very different way in which they diagnose their disagreement offers us a potential insight into the recent speight of articles professing skepticism about wine expertise.