Wilson, Keith A. (2020) Individuating the Senses of ‘Smell’: Orthonasal versus Retronasal Olfaction. [Preprint]

Preview

Text Wilson 2020 - Individuating the Senses of Smell.pdf - Accepted Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike. Download (382kB) | Preview

Abstract

The dual role of olfaction in both smelling and tasting, i.e. flavour perception, makes it an important test case for philosophical theories of sensory individuation. Indeed, the psychologist Paul Rozin claimed that olfaction is a “dual sense”, leading some scientists and philosophers to propose that we have not one, but two senses of smell: orthonasal and retronasal olfaction. In this paper I consider how best to understand Rozin’s claim, and upon what grounds one might judge there to be one or two distinct olfactory modalities. I conclude that while Rozin may be right that humans have dual occurrences of an olfactory ‘sense’, the concept of a sense-modality, and hence the ‘sense’ of smell, is ambiguous between two different notions: a physiological sensory channel and an experiential modality, along the lines suggested by J. J. Gibson. Furthermore, recognising that these are complementary rather than competing conceptions of a sense-modality enables the formulation of a powerful ‘dual-concept’ framework for posing and addressing questions concerning the complex architecture of human multisensory experience.

---

Export/Citation:

EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL

Social Networking:

Share |

---

Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Wilson, Keith A. 0000-0003-3940-8567
Keywords:	taste; smell; flavour; orthonasal olfaction; retronasal olfaction; multisensory perception; perceptual experience; the chemical senses; J. J. Gibson
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Perception Specific Sciences > Psychology
Depositing User:	Dr. Keith A. Wilson
Date Deposited:	20 Dec 2020 04:10
Last Modified:	20 Dec 2020 04:10
Item ID:	18527
Official URL:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11229-020-02976-7
DOI or Unique Handle:	10.1007/s11229-020-02976-7
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Perception Specific Sciences > Psychology
Date:	18 December 2020
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/18527

Available Versions of this Item

• Individuating the Senses of ‘Smell’: Orthonasal vs. Retronasal Olfaction. (deposited 04 Dec 2020 03:24)
  • Individuating the Senses of ‘Smell’: Orthonasal versus Retronasal Olfaction. (deposited 20 Dec 2020 04:10) [Currently Displayed]

Monthly Views for the past 3 years

Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years

Plum Analytics

Altmetric.com

Actions (login required)

View Item