2023/07/17 by Keith Wilson · 1 voice
Computer Science · Neuroscience · Psychology · #Multisensory perception and integration #Music Technology and Sound Studies #Neuroscience and Music Perception
paper · pdf · doi:10.3998/ergo.2909
openalex publication_date 2023/07/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
It is widely accepted that there is a visual field, but the analogous notion of an auditory field is rejected by many philosophers on the grounds that the metaphysics or phenomenology of audition lack the necessary spatial structure. In this paper, I argue that many of the common objections to the existence of an auditory field are misguided and that, contrary to a tradition of philosophical scepticism about the spatiality of auditory experience, it is as richly spatial as visual experience — and in some ways even more so. By carefully considering the spatiality and boundedness of audition, along with how sounds or their sources are experienced as occurring within the surrounding acoustic environment, we can gain a better understanding of (i) our auditory experience of space and (ii) the conditions for the existence of spatial sensory fields in general in a way that does not privilege vision over the other senses.