The Auditory Field: The Spatial Character of Auditory Experience

Ergo: An Open Access Journal of Philosophy 9 (40):1080-1106 (2023)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

It is widely accepted that there is a visual field, but the analogous notion of an auditory field is rejected by many philosophers on the grounds that the metaphysics or phenomenology of audition lack the necessary spatial or phenomenological structure. In this paper, I argue that many of the common objections to the existence of an auditory field are misguided and that, contrary to a tradition of philosophical scepticism about the spatiality of auditory experience, it is as richly spatial as visual experience—and in some ways even more so. By carefully considering the spatiality and boundedness of audition, along with how sounds or their sources are experienced as occurring within the surrounding acoustic environment, we can gain a better understanding of (i) our auditory experience of space and (ii) the conditions for the existence of spatial sensory fields in general in a way that does not privilege vision over the other senses.

Other Versions

No versions found

Similar books and articles

Perceiving the locations of sounds.Casey O’Callaghan - 2010 - Review of Philosophy and Psychology 1 (1):123-140.
Some varieties of spatial hearing.Roberto Casati & Jérôme Dokic - 2009 - In Matthew Nudds & Casey O'Callaghan (eds.), Sounds and Perception: New Philosophical Essays. Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press UK.
Restricted Auditory Aspatialism.Douglas C. Wadle - forthcoming - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.
Silence Perception and Spatial Content.Błażej Skrzypulec - 2022 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 100 (3):524-538.
Object Perception: Vision and Audition.Casey O’Callaghan - 2008 - Philosophy Compass 3 (4):803-829.
Sounds and Perception: New Philosophical Essays.Matthew Nudds & Casey O'Callaghan (eds.) - 2009 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press UK.
Do We Hear Compression Waves?Calvin K. W. Kwok - 2024 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 67 (9):3140-3168.
Hearing, Philosophical Perspectives.Casey O'Callaghan - 2009 - In Hal Pashler (ed.), Encyclopedia of the Mind. Sage Publications. pp. 388-390.
The Temporal Structure of Olfactory Experience.Keith A. Wilson - 2022 - In Benjamin D. Young & Andreas Keller (eds.), Theoretical Perspectives on Smell. Routledge. pp. 111-130.

Analytics

Added to PP
2022-06-27

Downloads
846 (#27,727)

6 months
187 (#18,183)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Keith A. Wilson
University College Dublin

Citations of this work

Space and perceptual boundaries.Błażej Skrzypulec - 2024 - Philosophical Studies 181 (6):1393-1411.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Vision.David Marr - 1982 - W. H. Freeman.
Action in Perception.Alva Noë - 2004 - MIT Press.
The Mind's Construction: The Ontology of Mind and Mental Action.Matthew Soteriou - 2013 - Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
Biosemantics.Ruth Millikan - 1989 - Journal of Philosophy 86 (6):281-97.
The refutation of idealism.G. E. Moore - 1903 - Mind 12 (48):433-453.

View all 40 references / Add more references