Olfaction: An Interdisciplinary Perspective from Philosophy to Life Sciences PDF
Preview Olfaction: An Interdisciplinary Perspective from Philosophy to Life Sciences
Human Perspectives in Health Sciences and Technology Series Editor: Marta Bertolaso Nicola Di Stefano Maria Teresa Russo Editors Olfaction: An Interdisciplinary Perspective from Philosophy to Life Sciences Human Perspectives in Health Sciences and Technology Volume 4 Series Editor Marta Bertolaso, Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome, Rome, Italy The Human Perspectives in Health Sciences and Technology series publishes volumes that delve into the coevolution between technology, life sciences, and health sciences. The distinctive mark of the series is a focus on the human, as a subject and object of research. The series provides an editorial forum to present both scientists’ cutting-edge proposals in health sciences that are able to deeply impact our human biological, emotional and social lives and environments, and thought- provoking theoretical reflections by philosophers and scientists alike on how those scientific achievements affect not only our lives, but also the way we understand and conceptualize how we produce knowledge and advance science, so contributing to refine the image of ourselves as human knowing subjects and active participants in a constantly evolving environment. The series addresses ethical issues in a unique way, i.e. an ethics seen not as an external limitation on science, but as internal to scientific practice itself; as well as an ethics characterized by a positive attitude towards science, trusting the history of science and the resources that, in science, may be promoted in order to orient science itself towards the common good for the future. This is a unique series suitable for an interdisciplinary audience, ranging from philosophers to ethicists, from bio-technologists to epidemiologists as well to public health policy makers. More information about this series at https://link.springer.com/bookseries/16128 Nicola Di Stefano • Maria Teresa Russo Editors Olfaction: An Interdisciplinary Perspective from Philosophy to Life Sciences Editors Nicola Di Stefano Maria Teresa Russo Institute for Cognitive Sciences and Department of Education Science Technology (ISTC) Roma Tre University Italian National Research Council (CNR) Via del Castro Pretorio, Roma, Italy Rome, Italy ISSN 2661-8915 ISSN 2661-8923 (electronic) Human Perspectives in Health Sciences and Technology ISBN 978-3-030-75204-0 ISBN 978-3-030-75205-7 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75205-7 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Foreword Smell is unique among the human senses. An extension of the nervous system is dipped into the airy chemical soup surrounding our bodies, and that contact evokes a mélange of intertwined perception, emotion, and memory. The sense of smell is highly individualized – small differences in genetic codes and large differences in personal experience cause each of us to experience an aroma somewhat differ- ently, yet we have developed few words that can clearly describe a smell to some- one else. Smell is deeply consequential for the human experience. In the kitchen it alerts us to spoilage while giving our food flavor and our mind pleasure. In social environments it influences our attractions and interactions. When smell is lost, depression and anxiety often follow. The story of smell thus spans from the biochemistry of an odorant molecule binding to an odor receptor through to a brain interpreting its olfactory inputs in full light of the accumulated knowledge of the world it inhabits. Smell provides a broad window through which to view the human mind. Exploring such a complex sense requires creative and humane acts of schol- arship. This volume, lovingly assembled by Nicola Di Stefano and Maria Teresa Russo, collects olfactory insights from philosophical, aesthetic, psychological, anthropological, and neurobiological perspectives. One emergent theme might be the idea of smell as a physical projection of self into a literal aura, a means of both unconscious self-expression and the basis of an olfactory communion between disparate individuals. Such a sense can have value, beauty, and of course congruency or conflict with other persons, musics, and objects of desire in the world. Another theme is that loss of smell can be a harbinger of disease, most saliently COVID-19 (the illness that currently disrupts much of the world) but also neurodegenerative disorders like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s, while olfactory stimuli can themselves be clues to other health problems. In seeking the biological underpinnings of smell we may thus not merely illuminate the mechanisms of the olfactory experience but also find clues to improving the well-being of the person. The editors have assembled a cast of forward thinkers with disparate perspec- tives on smell. The authors hail from across Western Europe, the United States, and India and have delivered chapters with academic styles varying from the care- ful claims of the biologist to the poetic prose of the artist and everything in v vi Foreword between. This juxtaposition of topics and scholarly approaches has produced a unique and stimulating volume that will be of interest to smell aficionados everywhere. Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science John P. McGann Rutgers University Piscataway, NJ, USA May, 2021 Preface When nothing subsists of an old past, after the death of people, after the destruction of things, alone, frailer but more enduring, more immaterial, more persistent, more faithful, smell and taste still remain for a long time, like souls, remembering, waiting, hoping, on the ruin of all the rest, bearing without giving way, on their almost impalpable droplet, the immense edifice of memory Marcel Proust, Swann’s Way. This volume was originally conceived after a national workshop on olfaction held at Campus Bio-Medico University (Rome, Italy) in May 2017. On that occa- sion, Italian philosophers, psychologists, physiologists, ethologists, and bioengi- neers were invited to discuss the relevance of olfaction in their own fields of research. This interdisciplinary panel was so inspiring that it suggested to us to turn it into a published volume. About a year later, our book proposal, enriched with the partici- pation of international scholars, was accepted for publication in the Springer series Human Perspectives in Health Sciences and Technology, recently launched by Marta Bertolaso. Two general ideas are at the basis of this book. First, the theoretical claim that all senses are different and one at the same time. Although we distinguish among five (or more) senses, sensory perception might be more adequately conceived of as a unitary process for making sense of the external world. Therefore, even focusing on a single, allegedly “minor” sense, such as olfaction, might unveil a wide variety of experiences ranging from anthropology to aesthetics that deeply characterize and are encoded in our form of life. Second, the methodological claim that, in order to provide a non-reductionist account of the complexity of olfactory experiences, an interdisciplinary approach is preferable. Grounded on these premises, this volume aims to offer an overview of the role of olfaction in human life by taking into consideration different perspectives, from philosophy to psychology, from sociology to bioengineering. Contributions are organized into four sections. Part 1 gathers studies from the fields of anthropology and social sciences showing how olfaction shapes culture (Le Breton), from societ- ies (Kapoor) to individuals (Cilli & Gruppioni). In Part 2, olfaction is conceived of as a window on the self (Diaconu; Griffero) and as a means to embody moral and aesthetic values (Jaquet). Part 3 considers olfactory perception within the general frame of human sensory experiences. Traditional topics such as the psychology of the appreciation of olfactory beauty (Diessner) and the role of olfaction in the vii viii Preface appreciation of food (Cavalieri) are considered, as well as more recently debated topics in multisensory research, i.e., the crossmodal associations between odour and sound in poetry and music (Di Stefano et al.). Part 3 also presents an overview of a major issue in olfaction and cognition research, i.e., the role of language in shaping our olfactory world (Dubois). Finally, Part 4 deals with the role of the human olfac- tory system in health and disease (Herz) and explores the frontiers of the use of artificial olfaction in biomedical contexts (Santonico et al.). Taken together, these contributions provide a colourful depiction of olfaction, from which it emerges clearly how invisible, vocabulary-poor chemical substances so effectively affect our social and personal identity, shape cultures of the world and convey moral and aes- thetic values. We would like to thank Marta Bertolaso, editor of the series, for her invaluable support during the review process of the proposal. We are also especially grateful to those speakers from the Rome workshop who contributed to this volume and to the scholars from around the world who accepted to join our project, providing it with an international dimension and making it relevant to a wider scientific community. Rome, Italy Nicola Di Stefano Rome, Italy Maria Teresa Russo Contents Part I Olfaction, Social, and Cultural Identity Smell as a Way of Thinking About the World: An Anthropology . . . . . . . . . 3 David Le Breton The Smells of Caste – Body, Self and Politics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Shivani Kapoor Not Only Olfaction: The Nose, Protagonist of the Diversity and Individuality of the Human Face . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Elisabetta Cilli and Giorgio Gruppioni Part II S melling Beings. Philosophy and Phenomenology of Olfaction Being and Making the Olfactory Self. Lessons from Contemporary Artistic Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Madalina Diaconu Sniffing Atmospheres. Observations on Olfactory Being-In-The-World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Tonino Griffero Smell as a Carrier of Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Chantal Jaquet Part III O lfactory Perception, Aesthetic Experience, and Language What a Good Nose Knows. The Role of Smell in the Appreciation of Food . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Rosalia Cavalieri Towards a Situated Cognitive Approach of Olfactory experiences and Languages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Danièle Dubois ix
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