Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-hfldf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-02T18:48:05.565Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Representational Account of Olfactory Experience

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Clare Batty
Clare Batty*
Affiliation:
University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY40506-0027, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Seattle rain smelled different from New Orleans rain…. New Orleans rain smelled of sulfur and hibiscus, trumpet metal, thunder, and sweat. Seattle rain, the widespread rain of the Great Northwest, smelled of green ice and sumi ink, of geology and silence and minnow breath.

— Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume

Much of the philosophical literature on perception has focused on vision. This is not surprising, given that vision holds for us a certain prestige. Our visual experience is incredibly rich, offering up a mosaic of apparent three-dimensional objects. For this reason, it is commonplace to suppose that visual experience is world-directed, with the view taking its most popular form in the representational, or content, view. World-directed views contrast with what we might call subjectivist views — views according to which experiences are raw feels or mere sensations.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 40 , Issue 4 , December 2010 , pp. 511 - 538
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bach, Kent. 2007. ‘Searle Against the World.’ In John Searle's Philosophy of Language: Force, Meaning and Mind, Tsohatzidis, Savas L. ed., 64–78. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Batty, Clare. 2010a. ‘Scents and Sensibilia.’ American Philosophical Quarterly 47, 103–18.Google Scholar
Batty, Clare. 2010b. ‘What the Nose Doesn't Know: Non-Veridicality and Olfactory Experience.’ Journal of Consciousness Studies 17, 10–17.Google Scholar
Berkeley, George. 1996 [1713]. Principles of Human Knowledge and Three Dialogues. Robinson, Howard ed. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bhushan, Nalini. 2004. ‘In Search of a Genuine Smell Illusion.’ Unpublished manuscript, Smith College.Google Scholar
Burge, Tyler. 1991. ‘Vision and Intentional Content.’ In John Searle and His Critics, Lepore, Ernest and Gulick, Robert Van eds., 195–214. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishing. Campbell, John. 2002. Reference and Consciousness. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Casati, R. and J., Dokic 1994. La philosophie du son. Nîmes: Chambon.Google Scholar
Casati, R. and J., Dokic 2005. ‘Sounds,’ in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2009 Edition), Edward N., Zalta ed., <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2009/entries/sounds/>>Google Scholar
Chalmers, David J. 1996. The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Clark, Austen. 1993. Sensory Qualities. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Clark, Austen. 2000. A Theory of Sentience. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, Austen. 2004. ‘Sensing, Objects and Awareness: Reply to Commentators.’ Philosophical Psychology 17: 553–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, Martin. 1991. ‘Individualism and Perceptual Content.’ Mind 100: 461–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, Martin. 1992. ‘Perceptual Content and Local Supervenience.’ Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 92: 21–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, Martin. 1996. ‘Externalism and Experience.’ In The Nature of Consciousness: Philosophical Debates, Block, Ned Flanagan, Owen and Güzeldere, Güven eds., 309–27. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Deutsch, Diana. 1974. ‘An Auditory Illusion.’ Nature 251: 307–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deutsch, Diana. 1981. ‘The Octave Illusion and Auditory Perceptual Integration.’ In Hearing Research and Theory, vol. 1, ed. Tobias, Jerry V. and Schubert, Earl D. 99–142. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Deutsch, Diana and Roll, Philip L.. 1976. ‘Separate ‘What’ and ‘Where’ Decision Mechanisms In Processing a Dichotic Tonal Sequence.’ Journal of Experimental Psychology 2: 23–9.Google Scholar
Dretske, Fred. 1986, ‘Misrepresentation.’ In Belief: Form, Content and Function, ed. Bogdan, Radu 17–36. New York: Oxford University PressGoogle Scholar
Dretske, Fred. 1988a. Explaining Behavior. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Dretske, Fred. 1988b. Seeing and Knowing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Dretske, Fred. 1991. ‘Dretske's replies.’ In Dretske and his Critics, ed. McLaughlin, Brian 180–221. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Dretske, Fred. 1995. Naturalizing the Mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Evans, Gareth. 1982. The Varieties of Reference. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Harman, Gilbert. 1990. ‘The Intrinsic Quality of Experience.’ Philosophical Perspectives 4: 31–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harper, R. Bate-Smith, E. C. and Lad, D. G.. 1968. Odour Description and Odour Classification: A Multidisciplinary Examination. London: Churchill.Google Scholar
Hodgson, E. S. and Mathewson, R. F.. 1971. ‘Chemosensory Orientation in Sharks.’ Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 288: 175–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, Frank. 1977. Perception: A Representative Theory. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lawless, Harry T. 1997. ‘Olfactory Psychophysics.’ In Tasting and Smelling, ed. Beauchamp, Gary K. and Bartoshuk, Linda 125–74. San Diego: Academic Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lycan, William. 1996. Consciousness and Experience. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Lycan, William. 2000. ‘The Slighting of Smell.’ In Of Minds and Molecules: New Philosophical Perspectives on Chemistry, ed. Bhushan, Nalini and Rosenfeld, Stuart 273–90. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Martin, M. G. F. 1992. ‘Sight and Touch.’ In The Contents of Experience: Essays on Perception, ed. Crane, Tim 196–215. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, M. G. F. 2003. ‘Particular Thoughts & Singular Thought.’ In Logic, Thought and Language, ed. Hear, Anthony O’ 173–214. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Matthen, Mohan. 2005. Seeing, Doing & Knowing: A Philosophical Theory of Sense Perception. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDowell, John. 1993. ‘De Re Senses.’ In Reality, Representation, and Projection, Haldane, John and Wright, Crispin eds., 98–109. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
McDowell, John. 1994. ‘Criteria, Defeasibility, and Knowledge.’ Proceedings of the British Academy, 68, 455–79.Google Scholar
McGinn, Colin. 1996. The Character of Mind: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Millikan, Ruth. 1984. Language, Thought and Other Biological Categories. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Millikan, Ruth. 1989a. ‘Biosemantics.’ Journal of Philosophy 86: 281–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Millikan, Ruth. 1989b. ‘In Defense of Proper Functions.’ Philosophy of Science 56: 288–302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Millikan, Ruth. 1990. ‘Truth, Rules, Hoverflies and the Kripke-Wittgenstein Paradox.’ Philosophical Review 99: 232–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Millikan, Ruth. 1991. ‘Speaking Up for Darwin.’ In Meaning in Mind: Fodor and His Critics, Loewer, Barry and Rey, Georges eds., 151–65. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Millikan, Ruth. 1993. White Queen Psychology and Other Essays for Alice. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Mochiyama, Hiromi et al. 2005. ‘Haptic Illusions Induced by Moving Stimuli.’ Proceedings of the First Joint Eurohaptics Conference and Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems, 645–8.Google Scholar
Nudds, Matthew. 2001. ‘Experiencing the Production of Sounds.’ European Journal of Philosophy 9: 210–29.Google Scholar
O’Callaghan, Casey. 2007. Sounds: A Philosophical Theory. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O’Callaghan, Casey. 2008. ‘Object Perception: Vision and Audition.’ Philosophy Compass 3: 803–829.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O’Callaghan, Casey. 2009a. ‘Auditory Perception.’ in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2009 Edition), E.N. Zalta, ed. <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2009/entries/perception-auditory>>Google Scholar
O’Callaghan, Casey. 2009b. ‘Sounds and Events.’ In Sounds and Perception: New Philosophical Essays, Callaghan, Casey O’ and Nudds, Matthew eds., 26–49. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O’Callaghan, Casey. 2010. ‘Perceiving the Locations of Sounds,’ Review of Philosophy and Psychology 1: 123–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O’Shaughnessy, Brian. 1957. ‘The Location of Sound.’ Mind 66: 471–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peacocke, Christopher. 1983. Sense and Content: Experience, Thought and their Relations. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Perkins, Moreland. 1983. Sensing the World. Indianapolis: Hackett.Google Scholar
Porter, Jess et al. 2005. ‘Brain Mechanisms for Extracting Spatial Information from Smell.’ Neuron 47: 581–92.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reid, Thomas. 2000 [1764]. An Inquiry into the Human Mind and the Principles of Common Sense. Brookes, Derek R. ed. University Park, PA: Penn State Press.Google Scholar
Reid, Thomas. 2002 [1785]. Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man. Ed. Brookes, Derek R.. University Park, PA: Penn State Press.Google Scholar
Searle, John R. 1983. Intentionality: An Essay in the Philosophy of Mind. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shoemaker, Sydney. 1996a. ‘Qualities and Qualia: What's in the Mind?’ In his The First Person Perspective and Other Essays, 97–120. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shoemaker, Sydney. 1996b. ‘Self-Knowledge and ‘Inner Sense,’ Lecture I: The Object Perception Model.’ In his The First Person Perspective and Other Essays, 201–23. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siegel, Susanna. 2002. ‘Review of A Theory of Sentience.’ Philosophical Review 111: 135–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siegel, Susanna. 2005. ‘Which Properties are Represented in Perception?’ In Perceptual Experience, Gendler, Tamar Szabo and Hawthorne, John eds., 481–503. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, A. D. 2002. The Problem of Perception. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Strawson, P. F. 1959. Individuals: An Essay in Descriptive Metaphysics. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Travis, Charles. 2004. ‘The Silence of the Senses.’ Mind 113: 57–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tye, Michael. 1992. ‘Visual Qualia and Visual Content.’ In The Contents of Experience, Crane, Tim ed., 158–76. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tye, Michael. 1995. Ten Problems of Consciousness: A Representational Theory of the Phenomenal Mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tye, Michael. 2000. Consciousness, Color, and Content. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tye, Michael. 2002. ‘Representationalism and the Transparency of Experience.’ Nous 36: 137–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Urmson, J. O. 1968. ‘The Objects of the Five Senses.’ Proceedings of the British Academy 54: 117–31.Google Scholar
von Békésy, Georg. 1964. ‘Olfactory Analogue to Directional Hearing.’ Journal of Applied Physiology 19: 367–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, Donald A. and Stevenson, Richard J.. 2003. ‘The Fundamental Role of Memory in Odor Perception.’ Trends in Neuroscience 26: 243–247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, Donald A. and Stevenson, Richard J.. 2006. Learning to Smell: Olfactory Perception from Neurobiology to Behavior. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar