Change in quality without material difference?

[William7]

Let’s say that two cooks each make a cake, using the same recipe exactly and the same ingredients and the same procedure, exactly (hypothetical). But one cook makes the cake thinking very loving generous thoughts, and the other in a bad hateful mood. Will both cakes taste the same?

My question is, are differences in quality always joined to a material difference in the things. Can you have two objects with the exact same molecular geography but different in quality? Or, can a person induce a quality-change in an object without affecting the matter at all?

 

[Caroline17]

This might sound simple or crazy, I’ve never taken philosophy and I’m seriously half asleep, but here I go:

If you have a blind taste tester, it’s likely they would taste no difference at all.
However, they could still tell you if it was good or bad to them.

The quality of the objects compared would be based on the perception of the tester, but a tester with zero knowledge of anything; except what physically tastes good.

If a person was given a cake by someone who angrily, resentfully made it, then the receiver would enjoy it less because the person felt unhappily compelled and upset to do something for them, making it a selfish thing for the baker to do because it actually made the receiver feel worse than before they got it, because the intention behind it was not good(of God), it was selfish (of satan). Even if the receiver still felt happy and liked the cake, if the baker made it with the intention of the receiver not liking it then the baker was acting out of selfishness again. So the quality of the cake was bad.

If a person was given a cake by someone who happily enjoyed making it, then they would enjoy it more because the person felt joyfully compelled to make it, because the baker felt happy to do something that would make them feel happy. If the receiver disliked the cake material wise(taste, texture) they would still like it overall because they know it gave the baker joy to make something that the baker believed the receiver would like. No selfishness on either side. The quality of the cake is good.

Therefore, I guess the material difference is in our thoughts, minds, an angry thought vs a happy thought, it’s the process of a given situation not just the outcome that affects quality. It boils down to the intent of all individuals involved.

I think it can be broken down into any example of actions in daily life, whether it be making a car, or cake. If you are thinking of designs for cars with the intent that no one will like it, that will reflect in the product and no one will buy it. The material difference started in the mind. If you think of a design everyone will like, it will reflect and you’ll have a car percieved as quality because of your intent to make something good. Then the receiver will reciprocate by fattening your pocket with something of theirs.

 

[JP2Admirer]

Benedict XVI in his Introduction to Christianity has raised some eyebrows with his claim that the category of relation should be elevated, perhaps as high as the notion of substance.

His conclusion was based on the fact that there is no way to remove the experimenter from the experiment. So, when the angry man tastes the exact same material thing as the happy man, it may indeed taste different to the one beholding it.

Simply speaking, we cannot eliminate perspective from the way we approach the world. So we could say that there is an “objective” truth, in the sense of something existing “as it is in itself” but we can only gain perspective on that thing as it is in itself.

So I would say things have a general truth to them, but that there are different “perspectives” on things. The thing will taste different depending on the tastes of the taster. I would think that emotion can alter how we perceive things.

As to whether the emotional state changes the taste as it is in itself (of the materially same thing) I would be apt to say that it doesn’t. As a previous poster mentioned, a neutral taste tester would not be able to tell the difference, in my opinion.