Cognitive Framework for the Study of the Senses: A Synthetic Approach through Scientific and Philosophical Perspectives

Currently, in both scientific and philosophical disciplines, many consider the visual and auditory senses as the “higher senses," viewing them as objective faculties, particularly in humans. Conversely, the tactile, gustatory, and olfactory senses are regarded as the "lower senses," primarily subjective. The approach to such differentiation involves comparing and analyzing them based on an insufficient conceptual understanding of objective knowledge. We argue against it, finding it unnatural, biased, and non-synthetic. Towards a change in conception, a more effective strategy could be to consider overall cognition as the interplay between the senses and cognitive processes. When viewed through this lens, three essential elements of this interplay emerge, which we identify as its salient features as follows: 1. Functional aspect - the senses inform of the pattern-based macro world rather than its micro constituents. 2. Objecthood aspect - all five senses put the organism in direct touch with the objective world without exception. We have comprehensively redefined objecthood to encompass both the object and stuff (its material composition, such as woody, watery, metallic, etc.). 3. Abstract or representational aspect - information through the senses is further manipulated by high-level cognitive processing. We term it the “cognitive sense.” In this article, we elaborate on these features and propose a normative theory. We believe this can serve as a framework for both scientific and philosophical exploration of the theory of the senses, informed by a comprehensive literature review conducted across both disciplines. Our study examines the roles of the chemosenses (smell, taste, etc.) and the tactile sense, which we term the vital senses, in grounding the organism in its biological basis of life. In contrast, the highly acclaimed distal senses of vision and audition can mislead the organism about reality and objecthood because of their connection to abstract cognition, thereby challenging the contemporary perspective.