Philosophy of Olfactory Perception

Andreas Keller obtained a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Würzburg, Germany, in 2002, and a PhD in Philosophy from the City University of New York, US, in 2015. Since 2003 he has worked at the Rockefeller University in New York City, studying human odor perception in the laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behaviors. He has published more than 20 papers on olfaction in such academic journals as Science and Nature. He has given over 20 talks on the topic across four continents, including presenting a workshop on "Olfactory Consciousness" at the Annual Meeting of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness in Brisbane, Australia, in 2014.

“There is much to admire in Keller’s book. It is a clear and engaging presentation of much recent research on olfaction and could help to bring the interest and puzzles of olfaction to a wider audience. … it does a very good job even if there is, as one would suspect, still more to do.” (Barry C. Smith, Chemical Senses, Vol. 42, September, 2017)

• Introduction: Why study philosophy of olfactory perception?.- PART I: PERCEPTUAL QUALITIES.- Chapter 1: Perceptual quality space.- Chapter 2: Third-person access to perceptual qualities.- PART II: PERCEPTS.- Chapter 3: Olfactory objects.- Chapter 4: The function of perception.- PART III: OLFACTION AND COGNITIVE PROCESSES.- Chapter 5: Availability of olfactory information for cognitive processes.- Chapter 6: Modulation of olfactory perception.- PART IV: CONSCIOUSNESS.- Chapter 7: Mechanisms of consciousness.- Chapter 8: Function of conscious brain activities.- Conclusion: Comparing olfaction and vision.- Acknowledgments.- Illustration credits.- References.