# SYNT-D-23-00582_Reviewer  ## Metadata - Author: [[92]] - Full Title: SYNT-D-23-00582_Reviewer - Category: #articles - Summary: insert summary - My notes: - Summary: The text discusses the metaphysics of sounds and argues for the broad event view, where a sound is identified with an event that produces and shapes an acoustic wave. The broad event view offers a comprehensive account of sounds and can include various types of events that shape acoustic waves. This view allows for a broader understanding of sounds beyond just vibrations, accommodating the diversity of auditory experiences. - URL: https://readwise.io/reader/document_raw_content/178576482 ## LLM Chats ## NotebookLM ## LLM Audio ## Highlights > [The broad event view identifies a sound with an event that produces and shapes an acoustic wave. Though two versions of the event view have been developed in detail, I argue that neither is satisfactory. In particular, Casati and Dokic’s (](https://readwise.io/reader/document_raw_content/178576482/#bookmark15)1994) monadic event view [fails to capture the full range of sounds, while O’Callaghan’s (](https://readwise.io/reader/document_raw_content/178576482/#bookmark27)2007[,](https://readwise.io/reader/document_raw_content/178576482/#bookmark28) 2009[,](https://readwise.io/reader/document_raw_content/178576482/#bookmark29) 2010) relational event view identifies a sound with too narrow of an event, leading to problems capturing important differences between sounds, and putting the perceiver at an unnecessary remove from the kind of broad events she typically cares about. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz1mp8astnb6cbjxt73n621j)) > In particular, auditory experience is not neutral on a sound’s location, duration, and on some individuation criteria, ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz1mtgba4femgzwwtkvx5m4c)) > Second, duration. If I am standing near a vibrating tuning fork, I experience the sound of the tuning fork as lasting from the time that the tuning fork is struck until it stops vibrating. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz1mv5csezjdebm26dy80vzb)) > “By ‘object’ I mean only that which is perceived—that which is available for attention, thought, and demonstrative reference.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz1mwtezh0xef59neqy7nw4m)) > I mean that when we reflect upon our auditory experience we find that being auditorily aware of anything requires being aware of a sound. But being aware of a sound requires awareness of nothing more than that sound and its attributes.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz1mxmnh65zqzehp48spzm3d)) > Third, individuation. A sound can survive changes in its audible properties. When I hear a siren, which rises and falls in pitch, my auditory experience seems to make me aware of one continuous sound. An event, like the vibration of a siren, can endure changes in its properties: in this case, changes in the frequency of its vibration. Identifying a sound with an event allows for a sound to survive changes in its audible properties. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz1mz3rwknczsfwmtj6w5g24)) > Identifying a sound with some kind of event doesn’t itself provide an answer to the question of what sounds are: we can characterize an event that causes a pressure wave in different ways. We need to give a characterization of the kind of event we hear. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz1mz9kt3cg0mjhwre2qy3w1)) > When someone slams a door shut, I hear the event of the door slamming. When humidity expands a door and it creaks, I hear the event of the door expanding. When a carpenter sands a door, I hear the event of sanding the door. All of these examples involve a door and the disturbance of an ambient medium, but to give an adequate characterization of the sound in each example, we need to appeal to a broad event in which the door is involved. When someone plays the saxophone, I hear the event of that person playing the saxophone. When someone drops her saxophone on the ground, I hear the event of the saxophone colliding with the ground. When someone speaks, I hear the event of her speaking. And so on. All of these are broad events that produce and shape acoustic waves. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz1n3h2958hcxk4mq64wcs4t)) > My proposal is that a sound, the immediate object of auditory perception, is an event that produces and shapes an acoustic wave.9 ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz1n3v77m0f7bv8724p2s5b3)) > Casati *et al* [list “collisions or vibratory events at the object” as examples of kinds of event sources, but they do not provide a general characterization of event sources (](https://readwise.io/reader/document_raw_content/178576482/#bookmark14)[Casati](https://readwise.io/reader/document_raw_content/178576482/#bookmark14) [et al.](https://readwise.io/reader/document_raw_content/178576482/#bookmark14) 2013, 462). ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz1n5ygbbj2fyef1jr867hmp)) > I claim that a sound is a broad event that produces *and shapes* an acoustic wave. To illustrate the importance of including the shaping of an acoustic wave within the event that is identified with a sound, consider a vocal sound. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz1n6xe4jmwjqe5mpy9rpsh7)) > But *which* elements before, and which elements after, the disturbance of the ambient medium are included in a sound, according to the broad event view? ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz1nahrvfp3byc1n8a29mr6m)) > In particular, the event includes my depressing the key, which causes a hammer to strike a set of three strings. On the broad event view, you simply hear this whole event: my striking the key, the hammer striking the piano strings, and the vibrating strings disturbing the ambient medium. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz1ndyt6en11hsvq444shwcz)) > There are roughly analogous cases in vision. When we see a bitten cookie we may see [that it has been bitten into; when we see a deformed lump of clay we may see that it has been poked.](https://readwise.io/reader/document_raw_content/178576482/#bookmark16) [Chen and](https://readwise.io/reader/document_raw_content/178576482/#bookmark16) Scholl [(](https://readwise.io/reader/document_raw_content/178576482/#bookmark16)2016[) give strong evidence that causal history is genuinely perceived — rather than inferred — in some cases. Chen and Scholl found that subjects experienced ‘transformational apparent motion’ when presented with two images in quick succession: a shape, then that shape with a ‘piece’ missing. When the second shape was consistent with being caused by an intrusion to the first shape, subjects experienced a gradual change between the two shapes, when in fact the change was sudden. This suggests that, at least under certain conditions, causal history of static objects is genuinely perceived. The case of hearing middle C is analogous in important respects: we perceive the very recent causal history (the depression of the key, the striking of the strings) of the current ‘stage’ of the event (the vibrating strings).](https://readwise.io/reader/document_raw_content/178576482/#bookmark18) ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz1ngyqh1fnf27ksvq481p1q)) > This musician is interested in the characteristic sound of the room, rather than the sound of the tuning fork, so it makes sense for her to consider the echo and reverb separately from the the striking of the tuning fork. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz1nsbpreavz6ske4wkpheb6)) > [While the relational event view identifies sound with the narrow “interactions of objects and bodies with the surrounding medium” (](https://readwise.io/reader/document_raw_content/178576482/#bookmark27)[O’Callaghan](https://readwise.io/reader/document_raw_content/178576482/#bookmark27) 2007[, 56, emphasis removed), the broad event view identifies a sound with a broad event that produces and shapes an acoustic wave. Consider a violinist bowing a string. On the broad event view, the sound will include the violinist moving the bow across the string, as well as the vibration of the string itself, and the disturbance that vibration causes (compare](https://readwise.io/reader/document_raw_content/178576482/#bookmark25) [Matthen](https://readwise.io/reader/document_raw_content/178576482/#bookmark25) 2010, 82–3). But for the relational event view, the ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz1phj7zwpgjb4f0m6zzk6cn)) > [sound will be the narrow event of the vibrating string disturbing the medium. I argue for this aspect of the broad event view in §](https://readwise.io/reader/document_raw_content/178576482/#bookmark8)3.2. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz1pgy71ht35har2q66dfm2j)) > [In §](https://readwise.io/reader/document_raw_content/178576482/#bookmark7)3.1 [I show that the monadic event view is extensionally inadequate: it fails to account for sounds that do not involve a vibrating object. The broad event view accounts for such sounds. In §](https://readwise.io/reader/document_raw_content/178576482/#bookmark8)3.2[, I argue that the broad event view’s broader conception of sounds is superior to the relational event view’s narrow conception of sounds. In §](https://readwise.io/reader/document_raw_content/178576482/#bookmark9)3.3, I show that the broad event view’s ability to include elements that shape an acoustic wave as a part of a sound offers an advantage over the relational event view. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz1pks2bxhc4rgfhm76qzwh7)) > The monadic event view faces problems in capturing the full diversity of sounds.20 This problem stems from the view’s insistence that a sound is a vibration event that an object undergoes. We can see why this is a problem by considering thunder. Thunder is not a vibrating object: it comes about when the heat from a lightning bolt dissipates into the surrounding air. That heat causes the air to expand, creating a compression wave. Surely thunder is a sound, but there is no vibrating object involved in an instance of thunder. Another example is a handclap. When you clap your hands, your hands trap and compress air between them. When this air pushes out, away from your hands, it causes a disturbance in the surrounding medium. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz1pn8k89bq1eks0cyxc8s09)) > This is an advantage in cases such as the sound of bubbling seltzer water. When we hear a bubbling seltzer, what object undergoes the event of the sounding? The bubbles? The water? We can describe this sound as an event without being committed to identifying a unique object that undergoes the event. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz1pq2xdvq4j26spb6rmh041))