Here, where? A puzzle for olfactory experience’s spatiality
Abstract
In this paper, I argue that two plausible claims for olfactory experience, (i) that modality is spatially indeterminate regarding the spatial location of what it presents and (ii) that whatever it presents, it is experienced as external to the perceiver’s body, are in conflict with one another. I argue that a satisfactory answer to this puzzle requires us to accept as part of olfactory phenomenology aspects of experience that do not obviously belong to olfactory experience. I claim that this ultimately leads to a modification of the idea that olfactory experience is spatially indeterminate.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Olfactory and Sensory Function Studies
Multisensory perception and integration
Geographies of human-animal interactions
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Philosophy and the Mind Sciences
- Publisher
- Universitatsbibliothek der Ruhr-Universitat Bochum
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 1
- Publication date
- 13 May 2026