The Nature of Noise

Kulvicki, John

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The Nature of Noise

John Kulvicki

November 2008, Volume 8, No. 011, pp. 1-16

Permalink: http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.3521354.0008.011

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Abstract

There is a growing consensus in the philosophical literature that sounds differ rather profoundly from colors. Colors are qualities, while sounds are particulars of some sort or other, such as events or pressure waves. A key motivation for this is that sounds seem to be transient, to evolve over time, to begin and end, while colors seem like stable qualities of objects' surfaces. I argue that sounds are indeed, like colors, stable qualities of objects. Sounds are not transient, and they do not seem to be, even though they are typically perceived transiently. In particular, sounds are dispositions of objects to vibrate in response to being stimulated. This stable property view of sounds aligns nicely with, and owes an inspirational debt to, reflectance physicalist accounts of color. The upshot is a unified picture of colors, sounds, and the perception thereof.

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One thing that makes sounds similar to other perceived movements for Pasnau is that they are transitory states of the objects that manifest them. The acrobat ceases spinning, the train stops at the station, and the boat’s bobbing becomes a swaying. Similarly, the bell stops ringing and the crowd quiets down. This feature of sounds distinguishes them from colors. “The key difference is that colours are generally stable, lasting properties, whereas sounds typically last but a moment, and depend on how forcefully one object strikes another” (Pasnau 1999, 322). We do not perceive movements as “stable, lasting properties” of objects, and Pasnau thinks sounds fit this mold as well.

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