Oddness

Any corporeal perception associated with a sense of pressure, hearing or touch is called a somatic sensation. Somatic sensations are described using words like hard, soft, loud, quiet, slap, tickle, push, pull, scream, whisper, port, starboard, bass, treble and so on. We use a curly old musical notation as an icon for somatic sensations. You can click on icons to come back to a page like this for easy reference.

 Hymnal Leaf, circa 1700. Archaic Slavic script and musical notations, 19 x 14 cm on paper.
By the third hypothesis, the reference experience for describing somatic sensation is hearing a human heartbeat. So to make a binary description of a somatic sensation, compare it to hearing a human heartbeat. Report the result using one of the following algebraic statements. If the two experiences are not comparable, then express this by writing

$\delta^{*} =0$

If the sensation is like hearing a heartbeat, then say that it is on the left. Express this as

$\delta^{*} =+1$

If the sensation is not like hearing a heartbeat, then say that it is on the right and that

$\delta^{*} =-1$

If it is both like and not-like hearing a heartbeat, then it is a composite sensation and

$-1 \le \delta^{*} \le 1$

The number $\delta^{*}$ is called the oddness.

 Summary
 Adjective Definition Oddness $\delta^{*} \equiv \begin{cases} +1 &\sf{\text{if a sensation is on the left side }} \\ -1 &\sf{\text{if a sensation is on the right side }} \end{cases}$ 2-7
page revision: 252, last edited: 06 Mar 2016 20:05