Aristotle on odor and sense of smell

Abstract

This article is devoted to the sense of smell in Aristotle’s psychology. Aristotle defines all senses by their proper objects. In the case of sense of smell, this is difficult to do, because the human sense of smell is poorly developed. In addition, the odor itself is problematic, ac­cording to Aristotle, it appears only under certain conditions. The purpose of this work was to consider the main aspects of Aristotle’s theory of the sense of smell. In this article, spe­cial attention will be paid  to  the following topics. Firstly, I considered the nature of odor: 1) why Aristotle defines odors and flavors as “almost the same affection”; 2) why odor should be considered as ἔγχυμον ξηρόν, and not as ἔγχυμον ὑγρόν; 3) what is the property of water and air, which plays the crucial role in the appearance of odors. Secondly, the ques­tion of the structure of the olfactory organ. Thirdly, the question of types of odors. And fourthly, the question of the place of the sense of smell among the other senses. It is shown that: 1) although Aristotle gives similar definitions of odors and flavors, he does not re­duce them to one another; 2) the medium plays the crucial role in distinguishing them; 3) the analogy between kinds of flavors and kinds of odors is not based on mathematical proportion of components; 4) the two types of odors named by Aristotle in De Sensu cannot have the same physical nature; 5) many difficulties concerning the sense of smell are con­nected with the specific role that it plays among other senses.