Sounds and Perception New Philosophical Essays

Sounds and Perception brings together original essays on auditory perception and the nature of sounds - an emerging area of interest in the philosophy of mind and perception, and in the metaphysics of sensible qualities. The essays discuss a wide range of issues, including the nature of sound, the spatial aspects of auditory experience, hearing silence, musical experience, and the perception of speech; a substantial introduction by the editors serves tocontextualise the essays and make connections between them. The collection serves both as an introduction to the nature of auditory perception and as the definitive resource for coverage of the main questions that constitute the philosophy of sounds and audition.

Matthew Nudds is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh.

Casey O'Callaghan is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Rice University, and formerly taught at Bates College in Maine. He is the author of Sounds: A Philosophical Theory (OUP, 2007)

1. Introduction: the philosophy of sounds and auditory perception, Casey O'Callaghan and Matthew Nudds
2. Sounds and events, Casey O'Callaghan
3. Sounds as secondary objects and pure events, Roger Scruton
4. Sounds and space, Matthew Nudds
5. Some varieties of spatial hearing, Roberto Casati and Jerome Dokic
6. The location of a perceived sound, Brian O'Shaughnessy
7. Hearing silence: the perception and introspection of absences, Roy Sorenson
8. The sound of music, Andy Hamilton
9. Speech sounds and the direct meeting of minds, Barry Smith
10. The Motor Theory of speech perception, Christopher Mole
11. Philosophical messages in the medium of spoken language, Robert E. Remez and J. D. Trout
Index