著者

源河 亨

出版者

科学基礎論学会

雑誌

科学基礎論研究 (ISSN:00227668)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.41, no.2, pp.81-91, 2014

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<p>This paper aims to show that the absence of sounds can be an object of auditory perception. First, I present various types of objections to the possibility of hearing the absence of sounds. Next, I explain that there is a kind of absence of sounds which seems to be heard, namely, the absence of sounds occurred in between sounds. I argue that perception of such an absence can be explained by the same mechanism for hearing sounds and detecting sound sources, that is, auditory scene analysis. I also argue that such an absence can be characterized, analogous to holes, as a dependent object which ontologically depends on previous and succeeding sounds. Based on these considerations, I reply the objections. Finally, I propose a modality-neutral model of absence perception based on the auditory case, and suggest that this model casts a doubt on the basic assumptions about perception.</p>