Second Home: From the Sensory to the Multisensory

Nigel Warburton in conversation with Professor Barry C Smith.

Traditionally we talk of the five senses, but there could be as many as 22. What are they? How do they interact with one another? How do they affect us? Expert on the senses, the philosopher Barry C. Smith explores these questions in conversation with Philosophy Bites interviewer Nigel Warburton.

Professor Barry C Smith is director of the Institute of Philosophy at the University of London’s School of Advanced Study. He is the founding director of its Centre for the Study of the Senses, which pioneers collaborative research between philosophers, psychologists and neuroscientists. He has published on the philosophy of language and philosophy of mind and now works mainly on taste, smell and the multisensory perception of flavour. He edited Questions of Taste: the philosophy of wine, Oxford University Press 2007) and in 2010, he was the writer and presenter of a four-part series for the BBC World Service called The Mysteries of the Brain. In 2015, he presented three programmes for BBC Radio 4’s History of Ideas series and appeared on BBC One’s Masterchef.