Sense and action : an account of sensory motivation / Matthew Fulkerson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fulkerson, Matthew, 1977- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Human behavior.

Motivation (Psychology).

Senses and sensation.

human behavior.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2026]

Summary:

This volume develops a systematic account of the way sensory systems like thirst, hunger, sleep drive, itch, pain, and thermoreception drive and influence human action, a topic hitherto lacking in sustained philosophical examination. These are all sensory systems, with complex, dedicated receptor networks that keep track of bodily and environmental features. They are also strongly motivating: they play an essential role in initiating, sustaining, influencing, and terminating our actions, which is (up to a point) subject to top-down cognitive control. Such systems play an outsized role in our daily actions, but their motivating functions remain poorly understood. Matthew Fulkerson argues that we should stop trying to understand these systems individually on a case-by-case basis, and instead we should adopt a more multisensory perspective wherein these systems function as an interacting group rather than as individual routes of influence.

Contents:

Setting the scene: the landscape of sensory motivation

Motivational sensory systems

Motivational tools

Sensory motivation as flexible aggregation

Motivational integration and interaction

Sensory control

Putting the model to work: the controlled integration model.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (Oxford Academic, viewed on September 24, 2026).

Other Format:

Print version : Fulkerson, Matthew, 1977- Sense and action.

ISBN:

9780198929352

0198929358

OCLC:

1601647639

Publisher Number:

CIPO000412023

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license