Key Arguments

• From the moist nature of the tasteable he infers a constraint on the organ: 'But since the tasteable is moist, it is also necessary for its perceptual organ to be neither actually moist | 422 b 1 | nor incapable of being moistened.'
• He states the causal relation: 'For taste is affected in some way by the tasteable insofar as it is tasteable.'
• He then formulates the required condition: 'What is necessary, therefore, is the moistening of something that is capable of being moistened while being preserved, but which is not itself moist—and this is the perceptual organ of taste.'
• He cites as an indication that extreme dryness blocks taste: 'An indication of this is the fact that when it is very dry | 422 b 5 | the tongue does not perceive anything'
• He adds that excessive existing moisture also blocks or distorts taste, because contact is only with that pre-existing moisture: 'nor does it do so when it is very moist. For in the latter case there is contact with the moisture that is there first, as when someone who has first tasted a strong flavor tastes another,'
• He explains pathological bitterness during illness as misperception through pre-existing bitter moisture: 'and as to sick people all things seem bitter because they perceive them with a tongue full of bitter moisture. 278'

Source Quotes

276 The drinkable and the undrinkable, though, seem to be a starting-point (for of both there is a sort of taste), but the latter is bad and destructive of taste, whereas the former is in accord with nature; and the drinkable is an object common to touch and taste. 277 But since the tasteable is moist, it is also necessary for its perceptual organ to be neither actually moist | 422 b 1 | nor incapable of being moistened. For taste is affected in some way by the tasteable insofar as it is tasteable.

277 But since the tasteable is moist, it is also necessary for its perceptual organ to be neither actually moist | 422 b 1 | nor incapable of being moistened. For taste is affected in some way by the tasteable insofar as it is tasteable. What is necessary, therefore, is the moistening of something that is capable of being moistened while being preserved, but which is not itself moist—and this is the perceptual organ of taste.

For taste is affected in some way by the tasteable insofar as it is tasteable. What is necessary, therefore, is the moistening of something that is capable of being moistened while being preserved, but which is not itself moist—and this is the perceptual organ of taste. An indication of this is the fact that when it is very dry | 422 b 5 | the tongue does not perceive anything nor does it do so when it is very moist.

What is necessary, therefore, is the moistening of something that is capable of being moistened while being preserved, but which is not itself moist—and this is the perceptual organ of taste. An indication of this is the fact that when it is very dry | 422 b 5 | the tongue does not perceive anything nor does it do so when it is very moist. For in the latter case there is contact with the moisture that is there first, as when someone who has first tasted a strong flavor tastes another, and as to sick people all things seem bitter because they perceive them with a tongue full of bitter moisture.

An indication of this is the fact that when it is very dry | 422 b 5 | the tongue does not perceive anything nor does it do so when it is very moist. For in the latter case there is contact with the moisture that is there first, as when someone who has first tasted a strong flavor tastes another, and as to sick people all things seem bitter because they perceive them with a tongue full of bitter moisture. 278 The kinds (eidos) of flavor, as in the case of | 422 b 10 | colors, are contraries when simple, namely, the sweet and the bitter. 279 And next to the sweet is the savory and to the bitter the salty, and intermediate between these come the pungent, the harsh, the astringent, and the sharp.

Key Concepts

• But since the tasteable is moist, it is also necessary for its perceptual organ to be neither actually moist | 422 b 1 | nor incapable of being moistened.
• For taste is affected in some way by the tasteable insofar as it is tasteable.
• What is necessary, therefore, is the moistening of something that is capable of being moistened while being preserved, but which is not itself moist—and this is the perceptual organ of taste.
• An indication of this is the fact that when it is very dry | 422 b 5 | the tongue does not perceive anything nor does it do so when it is very moist.
• as to sick people all things seem bitter because they perceive them with a tongue full of bitter moisture. 278

Context

Early 422b in II.10 (422b1–7), where Aristotle gives a hylomorphic and physiological account of the tongue as the organ of taste, specifying its required moisture condition and using examples of dryness, successive strong flavors, and illness to support the analysis.