Our brains slot certain neural response patterns into sensory pathways we call “sight,” “smell” and so on - but abilities like synesthesia and echolocation show that even the boundaries between our senses can be blurry.
In fact, as a recent study shows, it’s fundamental to the way our brains work.Īt the most basic level, we don’t really perceive separate objects at all - we perceive our nervous systems’ responses to a boundless flow of electromagnetic waves and biochemical reactions. This technique of chopping up reality wasn’t invented in ancient Greece, though. I’m sure Plato was less than thrilled at this stunt, but the story reminds us that these early philosophers were still hammering out the most basic tenets of the science we now know as taxonomy: The grouping of objects from the world into abstract categories. He caught everyone’s attention, gathered a crowd around him, and announced his deduction: “Man is defined as a hairless, featherless, two-legged animal!” Whereupon Diogenes abruptly leaped up from the lawn, dashed off to the marketplace, and burst back onto the porch carrying a plucked chicken - which he held aloft and shouted, “Behold: I give you. While they debated the mysteries of the cosmos, Diogenes preferred to soak up some rays - some have called him the Jimmy Buffett of ancient Greece.Īnyway, one morning, the great philosopher Plato had a stroke of insight. They called him “ Diogenes the Cynic,” because “cynic” meant “dog-like,” and he had a habit of basking naked on the lawn while his fellow philosophers talked on the porch.
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