Towards a sensorimotor approach to flavour and smell. (3rd February 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Millar, Becky
• Is Part Of: Mind & language. Volume 36:Number 2(2021)
• Page Start: 221
• Page End: 240
• Publication Date: 2020-02-03
• Subjects: chemical senses -- flavour -- sensorimotor enactivism -- smell; Psycholinguistics -- Periodicals; Thought and thinking -- Periodicals; Language and languages -- Philosophy -- Periodicals; 153.42
• DOI: 10.1111/mila.12275
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0268-1064

Abstract

Abstract : Sensorimotor enactivism takes perceptual experience to be constituted by a kind of attunement to sensorimotor contingencies – law‐like relations between sensory inputs and bodily activity. The chemical senses have traditionally been construed as especially simple and passive, and a number of philosophers have argued that flavour and smell are problem cases for the sensorimotor approach. In this article, I respond to these objections to the sensorimotor approach, and in doing so offer the beginnings of a sensorimotor account of the chemical senses.