• Anonymys
    117
    Imagine that you have never seen or lived in any kind of organized human society. Design your perfect ethical civilization.

    Then, Answer this question.
    If a man born blind, and able to distinguish by touch between a cube and a globe, were made to see, could he now tell by sight which was the cube and which the globe, before he touched them?
  • praxis
    6.2k
    Where's Nil Loc when you need him.
  • Cavacava
    2.4k
    Nature Neuroscience, patients who had been blind since birth underwent sight-restoring surgeries as children or adolescent. In the day or two following surgery, patients seemed unable to match what they felt with their hands with what they saw, the researchers found, but a week later, they could.

    http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2011/04/11/when-the-blind-suddenly-see-do-they-know-what-theyre-looking-at/#.WZMlr1GGPlJ

    Apparently the brain rewires itself which takes a little time, but not too long.
  • Sir2u
    3.2k
    Even blind people have a sense of dimension and spacial order. I saw a blind man draw a picture of a funny shaped fruit after touching it for a few minutes. The size and shape were fairly accurate in 2D and he could even draw it from several angles without having to touch it again. He had been born blind.
  • Anonymys
    117
    That's pretty incredible.
    The size and shape were fairly accurate in 2D and he could even draw it from several angles without having to touch it againSir2u

    But did he know what fruit is was? Could he have known the difference between a circle and a square without somebody telling him?
  • Nils Loc
    1.3k
    Where's Nil Loc when you need him. — praxis

    It's all about Bitter Crank or John Rawls really. They're the cat's meow and the answer to all questions.

    Now I will go and cry, alone, in my closet... (burning Praxis in effigy).
  • praxis
    6.2k
    My perfect ethical civilization is spherical. I don't know why.
  • Sir2u
    3.2k
    But did he know what fruit is was?Anonymys

    It was a breadfruit, would you know one if you saw it?

    Could he have known the difference between a circle and a square without somebody telling him?Anonymys

    Even with 2 good eyes you would not know the difference without someone telling you first. That is what they teach you in school.
bold
italic
underline
strike
code
quote
ulist
image
url
mention
reveal
youtube
tweet
Add a Comment

Welcome to The Philosophy Forum!

Get involved in philosophical discussions about knowledge, truth, language, consciousness, science, politics, religion, logic and mathematics, art, history, and lots more. No ads, no clutter, and very little agreement — just fascinating conversations.