Traditionally, seven senses are recognized in humans:
1. Sight — the ability to see the surrounding world through the eyes.
2. Hearing — the ability to perceive sound waves through the ears.
3. Smell — the ability to detect odors through the nose.
4. Taste — the ability to distinguish the flavors of food through taste receptors on the tongue.
5. Touch — the ability to feel touches, pressure, and temperature through the skin.
6. Proprioception — awareness of the body’s position in space, including balance and movement, through receptors in muscles and joints.
7. Vestibular perception — perception of the position and movement of the head in space, which helps maintain balance, through the vestibular apparatus of the inner ear.
Here are several examples where the “four” plays an important role:
1. Four corners of the earth: Used in some cultures and religions to signify completeness or universality.
2. Four directions: North, South, East, and West — the main directions used for spatial orientation.
3. Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: In Christian eschatology, from the Book of Revelation, symbols of war, famine, death, and catastrophe.
4. Four castes in Hinduism: Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras — the traditional social groups in Indian society.
5. Four Noble Truths: In Buddhism, they describe the basic concepts of the path to awakening: suffering, the cause of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the path leading to the cessation of suffering.
6. Four fundamental forces in the Universe: Gravity, electromagnetism, strong nuclear force, and weak nuclear force.
7. Four liberal arts: In classical education — grammar, logic, rhetoric, and music. 8. Four temperaments: Sanguine, choleric, phlegmatic, and melancholic — traditional temperament types used in ancient and medieval medicine. These examples demonstrate how the number four plays an important role in various belief systems and human knowledge, symbolizing completeness, harmony, and structure.