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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PERCEPTION
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contact of it with the olfactory organ. If it be at a distance from us, then the odorous particles given off by the object are brought in actual contact with the sense organ by currents of air. In the case of the lower senses, all systems of philosophy admit a direct sense-object contact. It is also admitted that the senses of smell, taste and touch remain passive in their end-organs where they are met by their respective stimuli. The remaining two senses of sight and hearing also act in contact with their objects, although not quite as directly as the rest. According to the Vedānta, the sense of hearing travels to the sounding objects and gives us sensations of sound. The Nyāya, however, agrees with modern science in holding that sound-waves sent by the object are received into the ear-passage and there perceived as sound : According to both the Nyāya and the Vedānta, the visual sense reaches out to its object and gives us coloursensations This is why the eye and the ear can perceive the distance and direction of their respective objects. While in modern science visual sensation is believed to be due to the transmission of light-waves from the object tu the eye, in Indian philosophy it is explained by the emanation of lightrays from the eye to the object. Ordinarily the colour-rays are not visible, but are inferred as the inedium of senseobject contact in visual perception. Still we may perceive them under certain special circumstances, as when they emanate from the eyes of cats and other animals in a dark night. The uninformed and the uncultured may not admit sense-object contact in the perception of distant objects, because the medium of such contact is imperceptible. But that there cannot be any perception without sense-object contact is implied in all cases of obstructed sense-activity (āvaraṇopapattı). We cannot see things hidden behind an
1 NM., p 479. · VP , Ch I
3 BP , 165-66 20—(1117B)
