Subject
SYNAESTHESIA
Date
Body
EDITOR's NOTE. As close readers of _Speak, Memory_ know, VN was "a
synaesthete,"--a person who experienced color responses (as well as
tactile & gustatory) to sounds and letter shapes. I have explored this and
pointed out that VN uses "the alphabetic rainbows" he sets forth in the
Russian and English versions of his autobiography as a metaphor for his
bi-lingual literary creativity. Additionally, one can speculate that the
phenomenon played some role in his crreative processes. A great deal of
scientific research on synaesthesia has been done in recent years and
Nabokov's account of his "case" has often been cited. One of the more
prominent researcher's in the field is neurologist Richard Cytowic who has
published two books on the subject. His work is the object of a critique
by Kevin Korb published in the electronic journal PSYCHE-L. The critique
is too long and too arcane for NABOKV-L but I offer the abstract below and
information on the WWW site where the full text is available. My thanks to
Marianne Cotugno <mxc52@psu.edu> for calling the item to my attention.
DBJ
P.S. Be forewarned that there is no reference to VN in the the critique.
------------------------------
From: IN%"PSYCHE-D@IRIS.RFMH.ORG" "Psyche-D" 20-JAN-1996 07:51:58.90
To: IN%"PSYCHE-L@IRIS.RFMH.ORG" "Multiple recipients of list PSYCHE-L"
Subj: psyche-96-2-24-syn_phenomenology-3-korb
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
PSYCHE: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL OF RESEARCH ON CONSCIOUSNESS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SYNESTHESIA AND METHOD
Kevin B. Korb
Dept. of Computer Science
Monash University
CLAYTON VIC 3168
AUSTRALIA
korb@bruce.cs.monash.edu.au
http://psyche.cs.monash.edu.au/volume2-1/
psyche-96-2-24-syn_phenomenology-3-korb.html
ftp://ftp.cs.monash.edu.au/psyche/v2-1/
psyche-96-2-24-syn_phenomenology-3-korb.txt
Copyright (c) 1995 Kevin B. Korb
Received: October 14, 1995; Accepted: December 10, 1995;
Published: January 20, 1996
KEYWORDS: Synesthesia, methodology, heterophenomenology, reason, emotion,
objective method, ineffability, artificial intelligence, behaviorism.
COMMENTARY ON: Cytowic, R. E. (1995) Synesthesia: Phenomenology and
Neuropsychology *PSYCHE, 2(10).* http://psyche.cs.monash.edu.au/volume2-1
/psyche-95-2-10-syn_phenomenology-1-cytowic.html
ABSTRACT: Richard Cytowic has done considerable service to the
scientific study of synesthesia, conducting important research and
publishing two recent books on the subject. The study of synesthesia
raises interesting questions about scientific method, both because of
the negative reception it received initially--often being viewed as
tainted by a reliance upon introspective reports--and because of the
connections Cytowic has found between synesthetic perception and the
limbic system, thereby possibly undermining some of the claims to
objectivity in perception and scientific method. I dispute some of
the more extreme methodological conclusions Cytowic draws from his
work and reinforce others by reference to different arguments
current within the philosophy of science.
synaesthete,"--a person who experienced color responses (as well as
tactile & gustatory) to sounds and letter shapes. I have explored this and
pointed out that VN uses "the alphabetic rainbows" he sets forth in the
Russian and English versions of his autobiography as a metaphor for his
bi-lingual literary creativity. Additionally, one can speculate that the
phenomenon played some role in his crreative processes. A great deal of
scientific research on synaesthesia has been done in recent years and
Nabokov's account of his "case" has often been cited. One of the more
prominent researcher's in the field is neurologist Richard Cytowic who has
published two books on the subject. His work is the object of a critique
by Kevin Korb published in the electronic journal PSYCHE-L. The critique
is too long and too arcane for NABOKV-L but I offer the abstract below and
information on the WWW site where the full text is available. My thanks to
Marianne Cotugno <mxc52@psu.edu> for calling the item to my attention.
DBJ
P.S. Be forewarned that there is no reference to VN in the the critique.
------------------------------
From: IN%"PSYCHE-D@IRIS.RFMH.ORG" "Psyche-D" 20-JAN-1996 07:51:58.90
To: IN%"PSYCHE-L@IRIS.RFMH.ORG" "Multiple recipients of list PSYCHE-L"
Subj: psyche-96-2-24-syn_phenomenology-3-korb
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
PSYCHE: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL OF RESEARCH ON CONSCIOUSNESS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SYNESTHESIA AND METHOD
Kevin B. Korb
Dept. of Computer Science
Monash University
CLAYTON VIC 3168
AUSTRALIA
korb@bruce.cs.monash.edu.au
http://psyche.cs.monash.edu.au/volume2-1/
psyche-96-2-24-syn_phenomenology-3-korb.html
ftp://ftp.cs.monash.edu.au/psyche/v2-1/
psyche-96-2-24-syn_phenomenology-3-korb.txt
Copyright (c) 1995 Kevin B. Korb
Received: October 14, 1995; Accepted: December 10, 1995;
Published: January 20, 1996
KEYWORDS: Synesthesia, methodology, heterophenomenology, reason, emotion,
objective method, ineffability, artificial intelligence, behaviorism.
COMMENTARY ON: Cytowic, R. E. (1995) Synesthesia: Phenomenology and
Neuropsychology *PSYCHE, 2(10).* http://psyche.cs.monash.edu.au/volume2-1
/psyche-95-2-10-syn_phenomenology-1-cytowic.html
ABSTRACT: Richard Cytowic has done considerable service to the
scientific study of synesthesia, conducting important research and
publishing two recent books on the subject. The study of synesthesia
raises interesting questions about scientific method, both because of
the negative reception it received initially--often being viewed as
tainted by a reliance upon introspective reports--and because of the
connections Cytowic has found between synesthetic perception and the
limbic system, thereby possibly undermining some of the claims to
objectivity in perception and scientific method. I dispute some of
the more extreme methodological conclusions Cytowic draws from his
work and reinforce others by reference to different arguments
current within the philosophy of science.