Topics Mind

Question Question 156 asked about thought with the absence of the common human stimuli, and the consensus seemed to be that someone deprived of their senses does not develop to a “normal” mental state. However, this brings up the question of what a “normal” mental state actually is. Isn’t it possible that there are beings, even within the examples you cited of those deprived of their senses in early life, who do not share our senses and stimuli but nevertheless have complex thoughts and even a possibly firmer grasp on the existential questions we discuss here? Isn’t it possible that these beings are simply unable to communicate these thoughts with us because we do not share a “common ground” of communication or a common interpretation of reality?

Accepted:
October 16, 2005

Comments

I don't know whether I can make sense of this possibility. Do you think it's possible that your pet gerbil has at this moment "complex thoughts and even a possibly firmer grasp on the existential questions we discuss here"?

Let's separate two questions. One is the question of whether there could be beings with mental lives far different from our own, who process the world far differently from the way we do, and with whom we can't presently communicate. I am inclined to answer that question "yes." Perhaps we are already familiar with such creatures. (Dolphins? So long and thanks for all the fish.) The second is the question of whether human beings who are radically deprived of any early sensory stimuli and whose brains thus fail to develop normally nonetheless have complex thoughts that they are just unable to communicate to us. Here I am inclined to answer "no."