From the point of view of modem wor

From the point of view of modem work on sensory and perceptual processes, the Greek origins are important because it is in the work of Alcmaeon, Plato, and Aristotle that speculations concerning the location of sensory receptors have their origins. Also, lists of sensory qualities were first proposed. Perhaps most importantly, it is here that we see the beginnings of questions that address sensory functions and how these are translated into perceptions of the world around us. For example, Plato’s emanation hypothesis had the eye emitting streams of rays that probe the objects of regard. Aristotle rejected this hypothesis, but his own view was not very helpful; he believed that the soul takes on the form of a seen object, as wax takes the impression of a ring. With respect to the chemical senses, the Greeks could not explain the lack of a correlation between rates of decay of odoriferous substances and odor intensity, a question that was to puzzle Newton in the seventeenth century.