Why do we have two eyes for vision and not just one?

There are several advantages of our having two eyes instead of one. It gives a wider field of view. A human being has a horizontal field of view of about 150° with one eye and of about 180° with two eyes. The ability to detect faint objects is, of course, enhanced with two detectors instead of one.
Some animals, usually prey animals, have their two eyes positioned on opposite sides of their heads to give the widest possible field of view. But our two eyes are positioned on the front of our heads, and it thus reduces our field of view in favour of what is called stereopsis.

Shut one eye and the world looks flat – two-dimensional. Keep both eyes open and the world takes on the third dimension of depth. Because our eyes are separated by a few centimetres, each eye sees a slightly different image. Our brain combines the two images into one, using the extra information to tell us how close or far away things are.

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