FYSP 151 - Our Senses, Ourselves

FC NSMA WINT

4 credits
Everything we know about the world comes to us through our senses. But what do we really know about these (five to seven to nine) senses? In this course, we will consistently reflect on our own experiences as we explore longstanding debates about how we ought to make sense of our sensational bodies. Alongside biologists, philosophers, anthropologists, perfumers, and cooks, we will examine sensation from many different angles, with emphasis on the manner in which our senses are social, or deeply entangled with the people, places, and things we perceive through them. As we will see, this entanglement makes sensory studies complicated and messy. Nevertheless, it also opens up new horizons for thinking about identity and social transformation. We will find that the social qualities of sensation not only encourage us to let go of distinctions we are used to making between ourselves and others, but also to consider the exciting possibility that a new sight or smell or flavor might just save the world someday.