When a Pineapple isn't a Pineapple

Weekly book reviews and literary criticism from the Times Literary Supplement: "In his %u201CEssay Concerning Human Understanding%u201D, John Locke asserts the impossibility of knowing the taste of pineapple before you have actually tasted it. This is not just a throwaway remark; he returns to the point in several drafts and in several places. In 1671, Locke wrote that the man who has never had pineapple, that %u201Cdelicate%u201D fruit, %u201Cin his mouth%u201D cannot have a true or %u201Cnew%u201D idea of it. He can only have an amalgam of %u201Cold%u201D ideas based on the descriptions of travellers. Later, he wrote that %u201Cwe see nobody gets the relish of a pineapple, till he goes to the Indies, where it is, and tastes it%u201D. To think that you could relish a pineapple without really experiencing it was like imagining you could see colours in the dark. The person who %u201Cfrom his childhood, never tasted an oyster, or a pineapple%u201D does not know the particular taste of these things. And again: %u201Clet him try if any words can give him the taste of the Pine-Apple, and make him have the true idea of the Relish of that celebrated delicious Fruit%u201D. For Locke, who had never tasted a pineapple himself, this was impossible. Only first-hand sensory experience could give knowledge of the taste %u2013 the quiddity %u2013 of pineapple. "