Mind

Do people who are blind, deaf and mute since birth dream? If so how?

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My first question wouldn't be how -- since it does seem to me that such people can clearly be 'conscious' in most senses of that word, and dreams often recreate (perhaps altered versions of) conscious experience -- but rather of what? But then again, presuably the answer is of material evident through their other functioning senses ..... Why wouldn't you accept that as an answer? Or are you imagining that a blind and deaf person lacks all conscious experience altogether?

best,

I don't know the answer to this question -- I mean the how question rather than the whether, for everyone dreams -- and it sounds (from the fact that he is resorting to words like 'presumably') like Andrew Pessin doesn't know either. For it's really a question for empirical psychologists, not philosophers, and the fact is that I haven't read their studies on the subject -- if, indeed, any such studies have been made. Even just anecdotal evidence should be treated with caution, and is likely to be little more reliable than armchair speculation. But, with that caveat, I am reminded of a talk I once heard from the philosopher, Elizabeth Anscombe, for she did have some anecdotal evidence to bring to the table here. She recalled speaking to a blind (though admittedly not deaf) friend of hers, and asking him what his dreams were like. She was naturally presuming that he would say something like, "I dream about how things sound, and feel, and taste, and smell." So she was a little surprised by the answer he actually gave. "Well, I just dream that things are the case".

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