Directory of Research and Expertise

---

Research Summary and Profile

Research interests:

Philosophy

Summary of research interests and expertise:

Barry C Smith is a professor of philosophy and director of the Institute of Philosophy at the University of London’s School of Advanced Study. He is the founding director of the Centre for the Study of the Senses, which pioneers collaborative research links between philosophers, psychologists and neuroscientists. From 2012-2018, he was the AHRC Leadership Fellow for the Science in Culture Theme. He leads on Public Engagement and the Research and Innovation Landscape for the UKRI’s Future Leaders Fellows Development Network. Barry was previously Head of the School of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, London. He has been a visiting fellow at the University of Cambridge and held visiting professorships at the University of California at Berkeley and the Ecole Normale Superiéure in Paris. He is a philosopher of language and mind, and edited The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Language, Oxford University Press 2008 (with Ernest Lepore), and Knowing Our Own Minds Oxford University Press 1998 (with Crispin Wright and Cynthia Macdonald). His recent research is on the multisensory nature of perceptual experience, focusing on taste, smell and flavour.  He has published theoretical and experimental papers, writing in Nature, Food Quality and Preference, Chemical Senses and Flavour. During the Covid pandemic he worked and published with clinicians and patient groups on loss of smell and taste, publishing with the British Academy a deep dive report on accessing health care before, during and after the pandemic in The Covid Decade for the Office for Science. In 2007, he edited Questions of Taste: the philosophy of wine, Oxford University Press 2007). He is a frequent broadcaster, appearing on BBC One’s Masterchef and BBC Two’s Inside the Factory, as well as Channel Four’s Food Unwrapped and Channel 5’s The Wonderful World of Chocolate and Supermarket Own Brands. In 2010, he wrote and presented a four-part radio series for the BBC World Service called The Mysteries of the Brain. In 2017 he wrote and presented a ten-part series called The Uncommon Senses and in 2019, a five-part series on The Art and Science of Blending for BBC Radio 4. For seven years he was a panelist on BBC Radio 4’s The Kitchen Cabinet and wine columnist for Prospect Magazine. He has carried out consultancy for the food and drinks industry and has recently campaigned on the health risks of ultra-processed foods. In 2024, he gave evidence to the House of Lords Committee on Food, Diet and Obesity. In 2025, together with Prof Ophelia Deroy, he curated with the Getty Conservation Institute a nine month exhibition in Los Angles, Wired for Wonder: a multisensory maze, at Kidspace Museum in Pasadena as part of the Getty Trust’s PST Arts.

Languages:

	Spoken	Written
French	Intermediate	Intermediate

Publication Details

Related publications/articles:

Date	Details
25-Sep-2020	Managing long covid: don’t overlook olfactory dysfunction BMJ, letters
28-Jul-2020	The best COVID-19 predictor is recent smell loss: a cross-sectional study Journal articles MedRxiv
20-Jun-2020	More Than Smell—COVID-19 is Associated with Severe Impairment of Smell, Taste, and Chemesthesis Journal articles Chemical Senses, Vol XX, 1-14
24-Mar-2020	Sixty Seconds on…Anosmia: wake up and smell the symptom Journal articles British Medical Journal, rapid response
05-Mar-2020	Preface and Science Facts Chapters Life Kitchen: Reviving the Joy or Taste and Flavour, Ryan Riley, Bloomsbury Press
03-Jan-2020	Tasting Flavours: An Epistemology of Multisensory Perception Chapters In The Epistemology of Non-Visual Perception, edited by Gatzia, D. and Brogaard, B. Oxford University Press
01-Nov-2019	Getting More Out of Wine: wine experts, wine apps and sensory science Journal articles Current Opinion in Food Science Vol. 27, 123-129
19-Jul-2019	Big Data and Us: Human-Data Interactions Journal articles European Review, Vol 27, Issue 3, pp.357-337
29-May-2019	Spatial Awareness and the Chemical Senses Chapters In Spatial Senses: Philosophy of Perception in an Age of Science, edited by T. Cheng, O. Deroy, C. Spence, Routledge
31-Dec-2018	Sensory Substitution and The Transparency of Visual Experience: comments on Laurence Renier Chapters In Sensory Substitution and Augmentation, edited by Fiona Macpherson, Proceedings of the British Academy, Oxford University Press
15-Feb-2018	Actual Consciousness: What is it like? Chapters Ted Honderich on Consciousness, Determinism and Humanity (Philosophers in Depth) edited by Gregg Caruso, Oxford University Press
01-Dec-2017	Beyond Liking: the True Taste of a Wine? Articles in The World of Fine Wine, issue 58 pp. 138 - 147
30-Nov-2017	Human Olfaction, Crossmodal Perception and Consciousness Journal articles  'Chemical Senses' 2017 VOL 42, 793-795
29-Jul-2017	Tasting and Liking: Multisensory Flavour Perception and Hedonic Evaluation Edited Book  In 'The Taste Culture Reader Experiencing Food and Drink', edited by Carolyn Korsmeyer, published by Bloomsbury Academic; ISBN: 9780857856982
16-Mar-2017	The perceptual categorisation of blended and single malt Scotch whiskies Journal articles  Flavour
01-Jan-2017	Taste: What's the Truth Articles
13-Oct-2016	Wine: secrets of blind tasting Articles
03-Oct-2016	But is it Art? Review of Degustibus – Arguing about taste and why we do it Review  Times Literary Supplement
10-Sep-2016	A wine philosopher on why “not every wine is worth our attention” Articles  Quartz - written by Olivia Goldhill
01-Jan-2016	Proust, the Madeleine and Memory Chapters  Memory in the Twenty-First Century, edited by Sebastian Groes, New Critical Perspectives from the Arts, Humanities and the Sciences, Palgrave Macmillan 2015
01-Dec-2015	Why is Wine Tasting so Hard? Articles In the World of Fine Wine, Issue 50
09-Nov-2015	The Chemical Senses Chapters  The Oxford Handbook to Philosophy of Perception, edited by M.Matthen (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015)
28-Feb-2015	What Wittgenstein would have said about that dress Articles  BBC News Website
04-Nov-2014	What Does Metacognition Do for Us Articles  Philosophy and Phenomenological Review, Vo. 89, Issue 3, 2014: 727-735
28-Aug-2014	Confusing Tastes and Flavours Chapters In Perception and its Modalities, edited by Dustin Stokes, Mohan Matthen, Stephen Briggs, Oxford University Press
20-Aug-2014	A Moment of Capture Chapters In Figuring Out Figurative Art: Contemporary Philosophers on Contemporary Paintings, edited by Derek Matravers and Damien Freeman, Routledge
20-Feb-2014	Airplane noise and the taste of Umami Journal articles Spence, Charles, Michel, Charles and Smith, Barry, Airplane noise and the Taste of Umami, Flavour, 3:2, 2014.
05-Dec-2013	Quine and Chomsky on the Ins and Outs of Language Chapters In A Companion to W. V. O. Quine edited by Gilbert Harman, Ernest Lepore, John Wiley & Sons
29-Nov-2013	Grape Expectations: How the proportion of white grape in Champagne affects the ratings of experts and social drinkers in a blind tasting Journal articles Harrar, Vanessa, Smith, Barry, Deroy, Ophelia and Spence, Charles, Grape Expectations: How the proportion of white grape in Champagne affects the ratings of experts and social drinkers in a blind tasting, Flavour,2: 25, 2013.
21-Nov-2013	Philosophy and Language Chapters In The Bloomsbury Companion to Analytic Philosophy edited by Barry Dainton, Howard Robinson, Bloomsbury, pp. 201-299
21-Jul-2013	Philosophical and Empirical Approaches to Language Chapters In Philosophical Methodology: The Armchair or the Laboratory? edited by Matthew Haug Routledge, pp.294-317.
01-Jun-2013	Wine Appreciation: Snobbery or Connoisseurship Articles The World of Fine Wine, Issue 40
17-Apr-2013	‘Relativism, Disagreement and Predicates of Personal Taste’, in: F.Recanati, I.Stojanovic, N.Villanueva (eds) Context-dependence, Perspective and Relativity. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG
01-Mar-2013	Taste, Philosophical Perspectives Journal articles The Encyclopaedia of Mind ed. Hal Pashler Sage Publications, 2013
01-Dec-2012	Davidson, Interpretation and First-person Constraints on Meaning Articles in Davidson: Life and Work, ed. M.Bagrhamian Taylor and Francis
20-Jun-2012	Perspective: Complexities of Flavour Articles  S 6 | N AT U R E | VO L 4 8 6 | 2 1 J U N E 2 0 1 2
01-Jan-2012	Empathie et perception des valuers Journal articles in Dialogue 51 (2012), 1– 9 Canadian Philosophical Association
01-Jan-2012	The Publicity of Meaning and the Interiority of Mind Chapters Mind, Meaning and Knowledge. Themes from the Philosophy of Crispin Wright, ed. A. Coliva, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2012
01-Jan-2012	The Sensory and the Multisensory Articles  This Will Make You Smarter, ed. John Brockman (2012 Harper Perennial)
28-Apr-2011	Folk Psychology and Scientific Psychology Chapters The Bloomsbury Companion to Philosophy of Mind, edited by J. Garvey, Bloomsbury
01-Jan-2011	The True Taste of a Wine? Articles  Wine Active Compounds: Proceedings of the WAC2011 International Conference, ed. David Chassagne & Regis D.  Gougeon, Oenopluria Media, 2011, pp.283-6
05-Nov-2010	Meaning, Context, and How Language Surprises Us Chapters Explicit Communication, Robyn Carston’s Pragmatics, edited by B. Soria and E. Romero, Palgrave Macmillan
26-Nov-2009	Speech Sounds the Meeting of Minds Chapters  New Essays on Sound and Perception, eds. M.Nudds and C.O’Callaghan, Oxford University Press 2009
17-Feb-2007	Davidson, Interpretation and First-person Constraints on Meaning’ Journal articles International Journal of Philosophical Studies, Volume 14, pp. 385-406
01-Jan-2007	The Objectivity of Tastes and Tasting Chapters  Questions of Taste: the philosophy of wine,ed. Barry C. Smith (Oxford University Press, NY, 2007), pp.41-77
01-Jan-2007	‘What We Mean, What We Think We Mean and How Language Surprises Us’ in: B. Soria and E. Romero (eds) Explicit Communication, Robyn Carston’s Pragmatics. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
01-Jan-2007	Questions of Taste: the philosophy of wine Edited Book ed. Barry C. Smith Oxford NY: Oxford University Press
21-Sep-2006	WINE Articles  The Oxford Companion to Aesthetics, 2nd edition 2014
01-Jan-2006	The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Language Edited Book eds. E. Lepore & B.C. Smith Oxford: Oxford University Press
01-Jan-1998	Knowing Our Own Minds edited with Crispin Wright and Cynthia Macdonald, (Oxford)

Publications available on SAS-space:

Date	Details
	What We Mean, What We Think We Mean, and How Language Can Surprise Us NonPeerReviewed Article
	Consciousness: An Inner View of the Outer World NonPeerReviewed Article
	True Relativism, Interpretation and Our Reasons for Action NonPeerReviewed Article
	Davidson, Interpretation and First Person Constraints on Meaning NonPeerReviewed Article
	Publicity, Externalism and Inner States NonPeerReviewed Article
	What I Know When I Know a Language NonPeerReviewed Article
	Why We Still Need Knowledge of Language NonPeerReviewed Article
Mar-2017	The perceptual categorisation of blended and single malt Scotch whiskies PeerReviewed Background: Although most Scotch whisky is blended from different casks, a firm distinction exists in the minds of consumers and in the marketing of Scotch between single malts and blended whiskies. Consumers are offered cultural, geographical and production reasons to treat Scotch whiskies as falling into the categories of blends and single malts. There are differences in the composition, method of distillation and origin of the two kinds of bottled spirits. But does this category distinction correspond to a perceptual difference detectable by whisky drinkers? Do experts and novices show differences in their perceptual sensitivities to the distinction between blends and single malts? To test the sensory basis of this distinction, we conducted a series of blind tasting experiments in three countries with different levels of familiarity with the blends versus single malts distinction (the UK, the USA and France). In each country, expert and novice participants had to perform a free sorting task on nine whiskies (four blends, four single malts, one single grain, plus one repeat) first by olfaction, then by tasting. Results: Overall, no reliable perceptual distinction was revealed in the tasting condition between blends and single malts by experts or novices when asked to group whiskies according to their similarities and differences. There was nonetheless a clear effect of expertise, with experts showing a more reliable classification of the repeat sample. French experts came closest to a making a distinction between blends and single malts in the olfactory condition, which might be explained by a lack of familiarity with blends. Interestingly, the similarity between the blends and some of their ingredient single malts explained more of participants’ groupings than the dichotomy between blends and single malts. Conclusions: The firmly established making and marketing distinction between blends and single malts corresponds to no broad perceptually salient difference for whisky tasters, whether experts or novices. The present study indicates that successfully blended whiskies have their own distinctive and recognizable profiles, taking their place in a common similarity space, with groupings that can reflect their component parts.

Consultancy reports:

Date	Details
2012	Courvoisier - Le Nez de Courvoisier  Le Nez de Courvoisier film on You Tube  Le Nez de Courvoisier - APP
2012	The Colour of Wine - Champagne Assembly Day  Report of experiments on colour of grapes in Mumm and Perrier-Jouet Champage presented at Champagne Assembly Day 2012

Research Projects & Supervisions

Research projects:

Details
Science in Culture Leadership Fellowship Institute of Philosophy Project period: 01-Oct-2013 - 01-Jan-2016 Research interests: Philosophy
Leadership Fellow for Science in Culture Theme Institute of Philosophy Project period: 31-Oct-2015 - 31-Oct-2022 Research interests: Philosophy
AHRC Re-Thinking the Senses Large Grant A comprehensive account of perception needs to begin with the relationships and interactions between the sensory modalities that produce our awareness of the world and of ourselves in it. Although the science of perception is moving very fast, it lacks the conceptual framework that philosophical thinking can bring to understanding the relationship between brain processes and experience. Our plan is for philosophers, psychologists and neuroscientists to work together in entirely new ways, including planning laboratory experiments together, to help us to understand how the brain puts together different sensory information, under the influence of past experience and expectation, to create the seamless flow of conscious experience, to identify objects and events in the world, to give us an sense of our own body, and to enable us to control our actions. We believe that our work will have wide impact beyond our university departments
British Academy Award 'Sensory Exploration' British Academy Latin-American Caribbean Link Grant, PI  2011-12 Exploring the senses and mutisensory experiences. Two worshops, on at the Institute of Philosophy at the School of Advanced Study, University of London; one at the University of Bogota, Colombia.
Co-investigator on SSHRC Network for Sensory Research A SSHRC funded Partnership grant creating a Network for Sensory Research involving Toronto, Harvard, MIT, Glasgow and the Centre for the Study of the Senses at the Institute of Philosophy working on the nature of multisensory integration.
EC FP7 Marie Curie Initial Training Network PETAF 2010-2013 Multi-institution PhD training network on the theme of Perpsectival Realism, with Universities of St Andrews, Barcelona, Geneva, Oslo, Stockholm, Central European University, School of Advanced Study, University of London.
FP7 Marie Curie Project 4CB (Investigator: Dr. Ophelia Deroy)
Multisensory Flavour Experience 2012-2015, 2015-2018 How taste, smell and touch are intergrated and influenced by other senses in the creation of unified flavour experiences by means of which we perceive the objective properties or flavours of food and drink.
Probabilities, Propensities and conditionals: implications for logic and empirical science (Investigator: Dr Mauricio Suarez The study is for a complex and interlocking set of topics in the philosophy of science, logic, and the foundations of probability and statistics, and of quantum mechanics. The focus of the project is on important and unexplored connections between objective probability, physical propensities, and the logic of conditional statements. The main expected outcome is an improved understanding of the nature of probability and its role in the empirical sciences, particularly in relation to quantum physics. The topics are of great current interest and relevance across a number of disciplines, including philosophy of science, logic, probability and statistics, and the foundations of quantum physics. There are further potential applications to computer science, statistical methodology, scientific modelling, and causal inference. The project is very carefully structured in a number of work packages with a number of specific objectives and deliverables for each: i) propensities and dispositions, ii) the logic of conditionals, iii) conditional probability and the probability of conditionals, iv) propensities and conditionals, v) alternative calculi of probability, vi) applications to foundations of quantum mechanics, vii) further applications, and viii) historical developments.
Science in Culture Leadership Fellowship 2012-15, 2015-18  The ‘Science in Culture’ theme aims to develop the reciprocal relationship between science disciplines and the arts and humanities. The sciences and the arts and humanities often seek to answer very different kinds of questions about human nature, the nature of the world we live in as well as the relationship between the two. Sometimes, however, the questions we seek to answer do not neatly fall within the remit of one or the other. Arts and humanities research can help us answer questions such as: • What is the nature, value and scope of scientific research? • What roles do culture, imagination, argumentation, creativity, discovery and curiosity play in scientific enquiry? • How might the arts and humanities engage with the sciences as systems of knowledge from the perspective of their cultural context, development and impact? • How might such interaction enhance public engagement and educational approaches, and inform policy debates?

Current PhD topics supervised:

Dates	Details
From: 01-Sep-2022 Until:	The Nature of Olfactory Experience Title of Thesis:  Magic Molecules and Mysterious Mixtures: Odour objects in nature, mind and silicon

Past PhD topics supervised:

Dates	Details
From: 2010 Until: 2016	Relativism and Contextualism about Truth Can the truth of statements involving predicates of taste be evalauted as relative to context of utterance or can these be assed as objective truths about contextual statements?

Available for doctoral supervision: Yes

Professional Affiliations

Professional affiliations:

Name	Activity
UKRI Future Leaders Fellows Development Network	Researcher Development, Workshop Presenter, Mentor
International Fragrance Association UK	Co-organise and chair annual IFRA Symposium at the Royal Institution
UKRI Future Leaders Fellows Development Network	Research development, workshop presenter and mentor
Tate Exchange - Moving Bodies	Sensory experiences, experiments and testing
UK Semiochemical Network	Workshop with neurophysiology, clinical, animal and philosophy sessions on smell
Tate Exchange - Self-Impressions	Sensory experiments and experiences
Tate Exchange - Taste at Tate	Sensory experiences and testing
Being Human Festival	Ran the first two years of the Being Human Festival
AHRC Leadership Fellow for Science in Culture Theme	Leading on Science in Culture Theme

Relevant Events

Related events:

Date	Details
19-May-2025	Responsible AI Third Philosophy of Ai co-organised by Alex Grzankowski and Barry Smith, co-sponsored by the Institute of Philosophy's London Ai and Humanity Project and the Department of Philosophy's AI and Society Centre at Hong Kong University. Keynote speaker included Prof Rob Reich (Stanford)
10-Oct-2024	International Fragrance Association UK Annual Symposium Co-organiser and chair of IFRA's annual symposium at the Royal Institution
23-May-2024	Being Human in the Age of AI Second Philosophy of Ai conference organised by the London Ai and Humanity Project at the Institute of Philosophy and the Ai and Society Centre at Hong Kong University. Keynote speakers Prof Shannon Vallor and Mattg Clifford
23-May-2023	Chat GPT and Other Creative Rivals First Philosophy of AI conference from the Institute of Philosophy organised by Alex Graznkowski and Barry Smith in a collaboration with Hong Kong University.  Speakers included Prof Sir Nigel Shadbolt (Oxford), Prof Murray Shanahan (Google Deep Mind), Prof Catherine Clarke (IHR, SAS), Prof Josh Dever (Autsin, Texas), Prof Herman Cappelen (HKU), Prof David Papineau (KCL), Gary Marcus (NYU), Geoffrey Hinton.
23-Oct-2022	International Fragrance Association UK Co-organiser and chair of the IFRA UK Annual Symposium at the Royal Institution
16-Oct-2021	International Fragrance Association UK Annual Symposium Co-organiser and chair of IFRA UK's Annual Symposium at the Royal Institution

Knowledge transfer activities:

Details
Cocoa Runners Sensory Chocolate Tasting A sensory tasting of craft chocolate with importers, Cocoa Runners, for University of London wellness at work week

Consultancy & Media

Available for consultancy:

Yes

Media experience:

Yes

Back to top