Topics Knowledge

Question My friend asked me this question and frankly, I have no answer for him. "Is it possible that people that are mentally unstable (a little on the crazy side) are actually sane and we are the ones that are crazy?"

Accepted:
November 15, 2005

Comments

I take it that by "sane" one has in mind some notion of normal mental functioning. If so, then the question points to an ambiguity in the notion of normality. One such notion is a statistical one: What is "normal" is simply what is common (or average, or what have you) in a given population. Another notion is normative: What is normal is what is proper, in accord with the rules, and the like. The contrast emerges in different ways in different cases, but its presence can usually be uncovered by considering modal statements: Would what is now normal still be normal if things were very different from how they now are? For example, it is normal for human beings to have five fingers on each hand. Suppose genetically modified corn carried some kind of virus so that, if a pregnant woman were to eat it, her children would have six fingers on each hand. Suppose further that such corn becomes very common, so that babies everywhere start to be born with twelve fingers. No-one knows what the cause is, so this continues for a long time, until most everyone has twelve fingers. Is it then "normal" for humans to have twelve fingers? If you're inclined to say "yes", then you are using a purely statistical notion of what is normal; if you're inclined to say "no", then you are using a normative one.

Of course, since everything in philosophy is controversial, there are philosophers who deny that there is any non-statistical notion of normality.

That said, we can now ask: Is it possible that people who are mentally unusual are actually the ones who are normal? No, if the notion of normality is statistical; yes, if the notion of normality is normative. That is: It's possible, in the minimal sense that it's conceivable; we can't simply rule it out a priori. Maybe, as with the previous example, there is some environmental factor (say, reality television) that has caused most people not to have the kind of mental functioning they should have.

Question My friend asked me this question and frankly, I have no answer for him. "Is it possible that people that are mentally unstable (a little on the crazy side) are actually sane and we are the ones that are crazy?" Accepted:November 15, 2005

Question My friend asked me this question and frankly, I have no answer for him. "Is it possible that people that are mentally unstable (a little on the crazy side) are actually sane and we are the ones that are crazy?"

Accepted:
November 15, 2005