Abstract
Smell is a moral indicator in our societies. Mingling with the other senses, it is essential in our social relationships. It is often a measure of the quality of our attention to others. It conditions love and hatred, often in a purely fantastical way. It is at the heart of racism. A person who smells ‘bad’ is necessarily ‘bad’ unlike a person who smells ‘good’. In this chapter, grounding on a number of philosophical, anthropological and sociological sources, I will show how smell and odours have shape cultural identity, social relationships and moral values in both Western and Eastern world. Moreover, I will provide examples of how different languages verbalize odours, highlighting the moral prejudices that might affect olfactory world with respect to alleged superior senses, such as vision and audition. Interestingly, although olfaction results to be one of the less categorized senses, it is often recognized as among the most effective, robust, and powerful tools for knowing the eternal world, allowing humans to establish a solid connection with the material and spiritual world.
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Notes
- 1.
Here and elsewhere translations into English are by Nancy Isenberg, unless otherwise indicated.
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This chapter has been translated from French by Giuliana Capalbo and Nancy Isenberg. The author and the editors are grateful to both translators for their precious and collaborative work.
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Le Breton, D. (2022). Smell as a Way of Thinking About the World: An Anthropology. In: Di Stefano, N., Russo, M.T. (eds) Olfaction: An Interdisciplinary Perspective from Philosophy to Life Sciences. Human Perspectives in Health Sciences and Technology, vol 4. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75205-7_1
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