"Specific sensations of noise": Wundt on noise and tone

This chapter discusses some of Helmholtz’s views on noise and their critique by Wilhelm Wundt. The question raised is whether all noises are qualitatively complex and thus subject to psychological analysis, or whether some of them are simple and thus undefinable. This question boils down to asking whether the difference between noise and musical sound is primitive or not. Wundt views it as primitive, while Helmholtz does not. The issue has important implications for the study of sensory experience. Both authors share an analytic conception of psychology, for which the question of what are the ultimate elements of auditory experience is central and indispensable.