Quick Dumb Question
 

We experience the world through our 5 senses (sight, smell, hearing, taste, and feel). I'm wondering if there could be more senses that we just don't know about because our bodies are not capable of experiencing them.

If we didn't have smell for instance, would we know about odor? If we didn't have taste, would we know that it's possible to savor food? Without sight, I'm sure we WOULD know that things exist beyond beyond our sight, but would we know that they are visible?

In other words, who's to say that our 5 senses are all there is to experience?

Btw- I'm not talking about things beyond our 5 sensory limitations such as, sonor, infra-red, etc. At least I don't *think* I'm talking about that. Or am I? These are still things which exist in one of these 5 mediums. I'm talking about completely different mediums. Not just ultra-violet rays beyond our visual perception, but something that would require a completely different sense altogether.

Like I said, a dumb question from a dumb layman who thinks about dumb things.

Re: Quick Dumb Question
 

There are more than 5 senses. Or there is only 1. Definitely not 5 though.

Re: Quick Dumb Question
 

Vestibular sense, proprioception.

But yes, there obviously other senses we don't have. Sonar comes immediately to mind, as does electric field sense.

Re: Quick Dumb Question
 

As vhawk stated, we have many different senses, but that aside...

[ QUOTE ]
If we didn't have smell for instance, would we know about odor? If we didn't have taste, would we know that it's possible to savor food? Without sight, I'm sure we WOULD know that things exist beyond beyond our sight, but would we know that they are visible?

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, we wouldn't describe these things the way we do now, we would probably describe them as they are physically instead. Vision is the ability to recognize certain wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation. Hearing is the ability to sense vibrations. Smell is the ability to detect compounds in the air. Touch is the ability to sense pressure on the body. Taste is the ability to detect certain molecules when they come into contact with the tongue.

Without these senses, we wouldn't have a concept of "what something tastes like" or "how something looks," but we would recognize the reality of the physical properties that determine these things, and we would create instruments to measure them. Anything we can measure could hypothetically be a "sense," but most of what we measure actually does work on the basis of the same kinds of physical effects. For example, a seismograph is similar to the human ear, an X-ray machine is similar to the human eye (as is an infrared scanner), reagent kits are similar to the nose... A lot of information comes from chemical compounds, vibration, pressure, and electromagnetic radiation.

Some other possibilities include heat, beta radiation, magnetic resonance, and gravity. We already have the ability to sense some of those in some ways.

Re: Quick Dumb Question
 

Oh, here's the wiki on the subject.

Re: Quick Dumb Question
 

yes. there could be some sense we have absolutely no knowledge of. god could be walking the earth giving off jesus-rays, and we just haven't found a way to detect them yet.

that said, its pretty unlikely imo, especially as we start to understand chemistry and physics pretty deeply.

Re: Quick Dumb Question
 

Thanks madnak,

I think I understand what you're saying. But I'm wondering if there could be things beyond all that which you mentioned. Pesumably, the reason we can measure all those things is because we have some clue to their existence through one of our 5 senses. I'm talking about a 6th, or 7th sense that simply escapes us, because not only can't we perceive it through one of our senses, we can't know it even exists.

Re: Quick Dumb Question
 

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks madnak,

I think I understand what you're saying. But I'm wondering if there could be things beyond all that which you mentioned. Pesumably, the reason we can measure all those things is because we have some clue to their existence through one of our 5 senses. I'm talking about a 6th, or 7th sense that simply escapes us, because not only can't we perceive it through one of our senses, we can't know it even exists.

[/ QUOTE ]

Who sensed that electric fields existed?

Re: Quick Dumb Question
 

Senses of:

Taste,smell,sight, sound, tone,concept,speech,balance, warmth, life, movement, ego(of another). Arguably, the sense of touch is more a sensing of oneself than of the outer world.

Re: Quick Dumb Question
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Thanks madnak,

I think I understand what you're saying. But I'm wondering if there could be things beyond all that which you mentioned. Pesumably, the reason we can measure all those things is because we have some clue to their existence through one of our 5 senses. I'm talking about a 6th, or 7th sense that simply escapes us, because not only can't we perceive it through one of our senses, we can't know it even exists.

[/ QUOTE ]

Who sensed that electric fields existed?

[/ QUOTE ]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Faraday

Not directly though. I'm not sure exactly what OP is getting at. Sharks can sense electric fields 'directly'. Bats use echolocation which obviously must be experienced much differently than the way we experience hearing. There are lots of possible and actual senses.

There could be physical phenomenon which is causally isolated from our senses in such a way that we could never discover them through science. Some other creature might be able to sense that phenomenon, but that creature might be undetectable to us as well.