Perceiving Smellscapes

Abstract

Abstract We perceive smells as perduring complex entities within a distal array. However, odor theories have been recently criticized for their conception of the spatiotemporal nature of olfactory perception and the individuation of distal odors. The paper does not aim to dispute these criticisms. Rather, what will be shown is that molecular structure theory, a refinement of odor theory, can be further developed to handle these challenges. The theory is further refined by focusing on distal perception that requires considering the perceptual object as mereologically complex persisting odor against a background scene conceived of as a smellscape.

Topics & Concepts