- Library Home /
- Search Collections /
- Open Collections /
- Browse Collections /
- UBC Theses and Dissertations /
- Affective qualities : what makes objects pleasant
Open Collections
UBC Theses and Dissertations
UBC Theses and Dissertations
Affective qualities : what makes objects pleasant Sandlin, Richard
Abstract
The smell of freshly baked bread, the flavor of chocolate cake, the feeling of a cool breeze on a hot day: these are paradigmatic pleasant sensations. My question is this: what makes these objects pleasant? In other words, what kind of property is sensory pleasantness? I focus my discussion on pleasant smells and pleasantness attributed to objects (as opposed to experiences). I canvass four views. Two views are objectivist: physicalism and primitivism. On these views, pleasantness is an experience-independent property. The other two views are subjectivist: projectivism and the relational view. On these views, pleasantness is an experience-dependent property. I argue that physicalism is circular and cannot explain a core aspect of pleasantness. I argue that primitivism leads to unacceptable pleasantness property proliferation. I conclude that pleasentess must be a subjective property. However, I argue that projectivism won’t work because the view cannot explain why we would have evolved systems to sense the pleasantness of objects. I conclude that pleasantness must be a relational property. On this view, we can explain core aspects of pleasantness in a non-circular way without undesired property proliferation, while also explaining why we evolved systems to sense pleasantness. In particular, I argue that pleasantness is the property of objects that dispose us to classify certain information in particular ways.
Item Metadata
Title |
Affective qualities : what makes objects pleasant
|
Creator | |
Publisher |
University of British Columbia
|
Date Issued |
2020
|
Description |
The smell of freshly baked bread, the flavor of chocolate cake, the feeling of a cool breeze on
a hot day: these are paradigmatic pleasant sensations. My question is this: what makes these
objects pleasant? In other words, what kind of property is sensory pleasantness? I focus my
discussion on pleasant smells and pleasantness attributed to objects (as opposed to
experiences). I canvass four views. Two views are objectivist: physicalism and primitivism. On
these views, pleasantness is an experience-independent property. The other two views are
subjectivist: projectivism and the relational view. On these views, pleasantness is an
experience-dependent property. I argue that physicalism is circular and cannot explain a core
aspect of pleasantness. I argue that primitivism leads to unacceptable pleasantness property
proliferation. I conclude that pleasentess must be a subjective property. However, I argue that
projectivism won’t work because the view cannot explain why we would have evolved systems
to sense the pleasantness of objects. I conclude that pleasantness must be a relational
property. On this view, we can explain core aspects of pleasantness in a non-circular way
without undesired property proliferation, while also explaining why we evolved systems to
sense pleasantness. In particular, I argue that pleasantness is the property of objects that
dispose us to classify certain information in particular ways.
|
Genre | |
Type | |
Language |
eng
|
Date Available |
2020-03-17
|
Provider |
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
|
Rights |
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
|
DOI |
10.14288/1.0389587
|
URI | |
Degree | |
Program | |
Affiliation | |
Degree Grantor |
University of British Columbia
|
Graduation Date |
2020-05
|
Campus | |
Scholarly Level |
Graduate
|
Rights URI | |
Aggregated Source Repository |
DSpace
|
Item Media
Item Citations and Data
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International