The Relationship Between Taste and Smell

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

When I was in grade school and I learned about the five senses, I learned that taste and smell were different things. And then when I've grown up, people are increasingly telling me that in fact, taste depends on smell. Is that is that completely accurate? Like, or is it just a slight exaggeration or completely wrong? Oh, no, actually, this is the crucial bit. Well, we often say that taste depend on smell, but I would actually twist it around even more. So taste is really what you perceive through your taste buds. If you look at your tongue, you've got salty, you've Got bitter, You'veGot umami, sweet sour and apparently now

We gather empirical evidence about the nature of the world through our senses, and use that evidence to construct an image of the world in our minds. But not all senses are created equal; in practice, we tend to privilege vision, with hearing perhaps a close second. Ann-Sophie Barwich wants to argue that we should take smell more seriously, and that doing so will give us new insights into how the brain works. As a working philosopher and neuroscientist, she shares a wealth of fascinating information about how smell works, how it shapes the way we think, and what it all means for questions of free will and rationality.

Support Mindscape on Patreon.

Ann-Sophie Barwich received her Ph.D. in Philosophy at the Centre for the Study of the Life Sciences, University of Exeter. She is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science and Cognitive Science Program at Indiana University Bloomington. She has previously been a Presidential Scholar in Society and Neuroscience at The Center for Science & Society, Columbia University, and held a Research Fellowship at the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, Vienna. Her new book is Smellosophy: What the Nose Tells the Mind.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.