Abstract

In everyday language, whether the other smells good or bad becomes an expression of a close or, on the contrary, distant relationship, and implies a value judgment on his entire being. But can we consider smell to be a carrier of ethical or aesthetical norms that gives rise to a philosophy of values? In order to answer the question, we analyze first the status of olfactory judgments, their relativity and demonstrate that smell is a secondary quality that can express a kind of truth. It is the foundation of an intersubjective system of values based on attraction or repulsion. Secondly, we examine how smell can be a principle of moral judgments and plays a decisive role in various figures expressing love and hate and the essence of a person. Thirdly, the paper shows that, despite epistemological obstacles, smell is a carrier of aesthetical values and it sketches out the contours of a contemporary olfactory art. Marked by an affective temporality, this olfactory art is an art of the ephemeral, based on an aesthetic of liquid or gaseous fluids combining the transitory and the tenacious.