Smell is denigrated by civilization because it dissolves the subject-object boundary

Evidence

Of all the senses, that of smell—which is attracted without objectifying—bears clearest witness to the urge to lose oneself in and become the “other.” As perception and the perceived—both are united—smell is more expressive than the other senses. When we see we remain what we are; but when we smell we are taken over by otherness. Hence the sense of smell is considered a disgrace in civilization, the sign of lower social strata, lesser races and base animals. — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 144

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: A genuinely paradigm-shifting account: the sensory hierarchy of civilization maps onto domination of nature, and that the degradation of smell is not incidental but constitutive of the subject’s self-possession.
• XREF: Connects to the chapter’s broader thesis that civilization represses mimesis in favor of instrumental rationality, and prefigures later work on smell and disgust (e.g., class-based olfactory stigma). — connects to: Language creates consciousness of self as separate from the environment.

Broader Connections

• Language creates consciousness of self as separate from the environment. #complicates (0.78)