How do the blind from birth dream?

Originally posted by Ragnorak
If I have never seen the colour red, how could you describe it to me if I have only seen black from birth?

D

How do they know what black is? They can't see at all so they have no concept of black.

My guess is that their dreams contain smell, touch and hearing which would make up an image in their brain which is not necessarily "visual".

Originally posted by Nordlys
http://www.infociegos.com/english/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14&Itemid=29

While I "see" in my dreams, that's only one aspect of them, so I don't find it that hard to imagine non-visual dreams. But if you are a mainly visual thinker, it's probably more difficult to imagine. My thoughts mostly come in a non-visual format.

Thanks Noodles.

D

Originally posted by Esoteric
How do they know what black is? They can't see at all so they have no concept of black.

My guess is that their dreams contain smell, touch and hearing which would make up an image in their brain which is not necessarily "visual".

You shouldn't just assume that empiricism about concept acquisition is correct. Perhaps those blind from birth would not have the information to associate, with certainty, the term 'black' with experiences of a certain phenomenal character. But this doesn't entail that they could not have experiences that are phenomenologically indistinguishable from those that we would correctly call experiences of black. Perhaps we should distinguish between those who are born blind because of some damage to their eyes or optic nerve and those that are born blind because they have a damaged occipital lobe or fusiform gyrus. The former still have the hardware necessary to experience color, and hence may still have color experiences. The latter may lack the hardware necessary to have color experiences or even to think about color.

Originally posted by bbarr
You shouldn't just assume that empiricism about concept acquisition is correct. Perhaps those blind from birth would not have the information to associate, with certainty, the term 'black' with experiences of a certain phenomenal character. But this doesn't entail that they could not have experiences that are phenomenologically indistinguishable from those t ...[text shortened]... tter may lack the hardware necessary to have color experiences or even to think about color.

IIRC, those born with damage to eyes or optic nerve will end up with underdeveloped (or possibly absent) regions of the brain that deal with sight. This has to do with how neurons multiply and subsequently die out within the first 6 months or so after birth.