Perception

Abstract

A student called Steve always begins his psychology essays by stating the first principles. One of his favourite opening sentences begins: ‘Ever since the dawning of the age of mankind …’In fact Steve has a particular fondness for quoting the ancient Greeks in his essays and his position is that most of our current ideas about the world have their roots in those times. For instance, in 5 BC the philosopher Heraclitus proposed that knowledge comes to each of us ‘through the door of our senses’. In other words, all that we can know about the world about us is what we can learn directly about it, using our bodily sensations.