Smelling matter

Philosophical Psychology 29 (4):1-18 (2016)
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Abstract

While the objects of olfaction are intuitively individuated by reference to the ordinary objects from which they arise, this intuition does not accurately capture the complex nature of smells. Smells are neither ordinary three-dimensional objects, nor Platonic vapors, nor odors. Rather, smells are the molecular structures of chemical compounds within odor plumes. Molecular Structure Theory is offered as an account of smells, which can explain the nature of the external object of olfactory perception, what we experience as olfactory objects, and what determines the olfactory quality of smells by which we can demarcate the spatiotemporal boundaries of smells

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Benjamin D. Young
University of Nevada, Reno

Citations of this work

Smelling objects.Becky Millar - 2019 - Synthese 196 (10):4279-4303.
Perceiving Smellscapes.Benjamin D. Young - 2020 - Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 101 (2):203-223.
Spatial aspects of olfactory experience.Solveig Aasen - 2018 - Canadian Journal of Philosophy 49 (8):1041-1061.

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References found in this work

Critical Notice.Michael Tye - 2000 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 68 (1):245-247.
The Problem of Perception.A. D. Smith - 2002 - Philosophical Quarterly 54 (217):640-642.
Principles of object perception.Elizabeth S. Spelke - 1990 - Cognitive Science 14 (1):29--56.
A Representational Account of Olfactory Experience.Clare Batty - 2010 - Canadian Journal of Philosophy 40 (4):511-538.

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