Maxime Barbier

Semantics of olfactory experience: a study of the meaning of odors, fragrances, and the aroma of wines

Description :

Can there be a semantics of odors, conceived as a set of principles determining the informational content of an odor? We have reasons to formulate a positive hypothesis and to undertake a scientific investigation. First, we consider beyond doubt that each sense provides us with information about the world, serving as a guide for behavior and a basis for beliefs. Second, we—like other animals—communicate through smell. Third, marketing, like everyday language, speaks of the “message of a fragrance,” the “nose of a wine,” and “the story it tells,” as if, by composing odors, we could generate meaning in a way very similar to how our grammar does. In the case of causal inferences about our environment, only the presumed source of the odor is at the center of judgment. But we are also capable of formulating inferences about a virtual source, to which the odor refers but which is not considered the actual source. For example, if someone is wearing musky cologne, anyone who encounters them doesn't assume that they are the actual source of the scent, but rather that they are carrying that source with them—namely, the liquid they have sprayed on themselves. Nevertheless, if the cologne does indeed convey its message of virility, the person smelling it understands that the meaning pertains to the wearer and not to the perfumed liquid itself. By including both causal and more abstract inferences, we intend to construct a comprehensive theoretical framework for inferential associations triggered by odors, whether they have a natural or cultural origin. To do this, we will need to shift the conceptual framework of the traditional notion of meaning, adapting it to the extension of semantics to non‑linguistic signs. This approach has proven fruitful in various media, particularly music, but remains to be developed in the realm of chemical senses.

Institution: Unimi

Doctoral School: ED 472 - EPHE

Thesis supervisor: Jérémie Lafraire

Thesis co‑supervision: Andrea Borghini

Cluster: SCOG