Do we have more than one material sense?

Discuss any topics related to metaphysics (the philosophical study of the principles of reality) or epistemology (the philosophical study of knowledge) in this forum.
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StayCurious
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Do we have more than one material sense?

Post by StayCurious »

By material sense, I refer to our ability to consume information about the world, which many conclude to be the famous 5: touch, taste, smell, hearing, and sight.

All of these can be logically said to really just be one sense, touch, being used by different parts of the body.

Taste could be defined as your tongues reaction to touch.
Smell could be defined as your brains response to certain types of air molecules touching your olfactory epithelium.
Hearing could be defined as air vibrating into, and touching, the ear drum.
Sight as different wavelengths within the electromagnetic spectrum touching the optical nerve.

Is there fundamentally only one physical way to obtain information, broken down and categorized to the manner in which our bodies just happen to manifest, or are each of our five senses unique and completely unrelated characteristics that are resulted from particular environmental requirements?
StayCurious
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Re: Do we have more than one material sense?

Post by StayCurious »

I can see how it could be said that this post belongs in a different section, but I believe it acquires an immediate metaphysical flavor when you apply your conclusion of your answer to my questions to your perspective of your existence relative to the rest of existence.
Eduk
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Re: Do we have more than one material sense?

Post by Eduk »

Is there more than one reality?
Unknown means unknown.
Steve3007
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Re: Do we have more than one material sense?

Post by Steve3007 »

I think the answer to the question depends entirely on one's purposes. We have as many senses as we consider it convenient to think of ourselves as having for whatever purpose we currently have in mind. If we wish, we can say that we have only one sense and it's all just electro-chemical impulses entering our brains. Or we could say that we have more than five senses. We could, for example, say that we have four separate visual senses - of red, green and blue (cones) and of brightness (rods).
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Frost
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Re: Do we have more than one material sense?

Post by Frost »

StayCurious wrote: March 3rd, 2018, 11:56 pm By material sense, I refer to our ability to consume information about the world, which many conclude to be the famous 5: touch, taste, smell, hearing, and sight.

All of these can be logically said to really just be one sense, touch, being used by different parts of the body.

Taste could be defined as your tongues reaction to touch.
Smell could be defined as your brains response to certain types of air molecules touching your olfactory epithelium.
Hearing could be defined as air vibrating into, and touching, the ear drum.
Sight as different wavelengths within the electromagnetic spectrum touching the optical nerve.

Is there fundamentally only one physical way to obtain information, broken down and categorized to the manner in which our bodies just happen to manifest, or are each of our five senses unique and completely unrelated characteristics that are resulted from particular environmental requirements?
I think you are altering the word "touch," since taste and smell is a chemical reaction with molecules binding with receptors rather than generating a mechanical stretch. Indeed, when an object touches your skin, what you are feeling is a combination of the electromagnetic force of the repelling electrons in the object and your skin rather than a binding of a molecule to a receptor site. In fact, smell may even be more than merely chemical, but may include detection of the quantum resonance of molecules, which is not a chemical property.

At the cellular level, there are mechanisms that detect mechanical stretch, which is rather different than the absorption of photons that occurs in the retina, which itself is neither mechanical nor chemical.

There is also a tremendous amount of internal perception, some of which detects mechanical stimulation and a lot that detects the "internal chemical milieu" which is a felt sensation of the homeostatic state of the organism.

Additionally, parapsychology research published in mainstream peer-reviewed scientific journals indicates that there are even more radically different forms of perception, commonly referred to as psychic. Please see:

Bem, D. J. (2011). Feeling the future: Experimental evidence for anomalous retroactive influences on cognition and affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100, 407-425.

Radin, D., Michel, L., Galdamex, K., Wendland, P., Rickenbach, R., & Delorme, A. (2012). "Consciousness and the double-slit interference pattern: Six experiments." Physics Essays, 25(2), 157-171.

Radin, D., Michel, L., Johnston, J., & Delorme, A. (2013) "Psychophysical interactions with a double-slit interference pattern." Physic Essays, 26(4), 553-566.

Radin, D., Michel, L., & Delorme, A. (2016) "Psychophysical modulation of fringe visibility in a distant double-slit optical system." Physics Essays, 29(1), 14-22.
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Atreyu
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Re: Do we have more than one material sense?

Post by Atreyu »

Well, OP, I would say that your first view is closer to the truth than the second. No doubt.
Wayne92587
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Re: Do we have more than one material sense?

Post by Wayne92587 »

We can not ignore our 6th sense !
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Windrammer
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Re: Do we have more than one material sense?

Post by Windrammer »

StayCurious wrote: March 3rd, 2018, 11:56 pm By material sense, I refer to our ability to consume information about the world, which many conclude to be the famous 5: touch, taste, smell, hearing, and sight.

All of these can be logically said to really just be one sense, touch, being used by different parts of the body.

Taste could be defined as your tongues reaction to touch.
Smell could be defined as your brains response to certain types of air molecules touching your olfactory epithelium.
Hearing could be defined as air vibrating into, and touching, the ear drum.
Sight as different wavelengths within the electromagnetic spectrum touching the optical nerve.

Is there fundamentally only one physical way to obtain information, broken down and categorized to the manner in which our bodies just happen to manifest, or are each of our five senses unique and completely unrelated characteristics that are resulted from particular environmental requirements?
If it's necessarily "material" then literally anything would have to be dismissed as "touch" because that's what follows from "material". A sensation is an interaction between the world and the senses, and a material interaction is one of stuff touching. The conclusion comes from the chosen definition rather than metaphysical principle. I'd pose the question to you of whether you could even imagine a hypothetical "material" sense that doesn't involve something that could be dismissed as touch.
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