Smellosophy

By A. S. Barwich,

Book cover of Smellosophy: What the Nose Tells the Mind

Book description

An NRC Handelsblad Book of the Year

"Offers rich discussions of olfactory perception, the conscious and subconscious impacts of smell on behavior and emotion."
-Science

Decades of cognition research have shown that external stimuli "spark" neural patterns in particular regions of the brain. We think of the brain as a…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Smellosophy as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I like the smell of rain. But I can’t explain what it actually smells like. Afterall, olfactory sensation is the “mute sense”—the one without words. To describe a certain smell, you are most likely using a metaphor like rosy smell or vanilla-like smell. Not only does smell have few words to describe it, but it is also a sensation with still a lot unknown. Barwich’s Smellosophy is a fascinating combination of science, philosophy, and history to explore the importance of this mysterious sensation in our society. While digging into philosophical and historical questions to explore how people in the past…

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