Why are there only five senses?

Our nervous system senses a lot of things. The five senses most people are aware of, are those that we actively perceive: sight, touch, hearing, tasting and feeling.

In reality our bodies are constantly perceiving hundreds of sensory inputs through various receptors. One you'll be familiar with is nociception, or pain reception. One you might not be actively interpreting is proprioception. This is the body's sense of it's own orientation and joint positions.

Senses can be received via specialised or multi-function receptors, but the signals fall under few categories: photo reception, mechanoreception and chemoreception. Nervous systems uses these signals in various forms and intensities to interpret our environments and enable us to survive.

Although there are more senses than just the five that are considered traditional, the senses of taste, smell, touch, hearing, and sight are the ones that are most commonly associated with the sense of perception of the outside world.

The concept of five senses is a traditional classification system that dates back to ancient Greek philosophy. This classification includes sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. These senses were identified based on the primary ways humans perceive the world around them through sensory organs such as the eyes, ears, tongue, nose, and skin. However, some argue that there are additional senses beyond these five, such as proprioception (the sense of body position and movement), vestibular sense (balance and spatial orientation), and others related to internal bodily functions. The classification of senses into five main categories is a simplification for educational and mnemonic purposes, but in reality, human perception is more complex and involves multiple sensory modalities.