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The Sense of Self

A journey into the human multi-sensory experience. In this episode, philosopher Barry Smith discovers the many senses involved in creating our sense of self.

A journey into the human multi-sensory experience, with philosopher Barry Smith and sound artist Nick Ryan.

In this episode, we discover two senses you may not have heard of, and ask what that means for our sense of who we are.

For thousands of years people thought we had five senses, now it's believed we have up to 33. In this new series, philosopher Barry Smith and sound artist Nick Ryan take us into the extraordinary world of sensory perception.

Barry Smith discovers our sense of ownership - the way we feel our bodies belong to us. He uncovers the sense of agency - the feeling of being in control. When these two are working as they should, we don't even notice it. But something goes wrong with these two enigmatic senses, extraordinary things happen to one of the most fundamental psychological phenomena we experience: our sense of self. Could it be an illusion?

Producer: Emily Knight.

Available now

15 minutes

Last on

Thu 30 Mar 2017 13:45

Broadcast

  • Thu 30 Mar 2017 13:45