Anosmic Aesthetics

• Authors: Marta Tafalla
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Anosmia is a sensory disability that consists of the inability to perceive odours. The sense of smell can be lost at any time during life, but people suffering from congenital anosmia, as I do, have never had any experience of smelling. My question is whether such an impairment of olfaction impoverishes aesthetic appreciation or makes it different in any way. I hypothesize that congenital anosmia entails two different kinds of loss in aesthetic appreciation. In order to test my hypothesis, I address modern and contemporary aesthetic theory. Finally, I claim that congenital anosmia constitutes an impoverishment, but also ask whether it can be compensated for by dialogue and imagination. I further inquire as to whether it can foster a more self-critical aesthetic appreciation, more conscious of the powers and limits of our senses.

Keywords

EN

ANOSMIA; SENSES, OLFACTION; AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE

Discipline

• PHILOSOPHY: PHILOSOPHY

• Publisher: Institute of Art History, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Estetika: The Central European Journal of Aesthetics
• Year: 2013
• Volume: 50
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 53-81

Contributors

author

Marta Tafalla

• Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain