A materialist believes that there is nothing beyond the physical world. Our "minds" are just an illusion, it really all reduces to particles and energy. Okay, so how can you teach a blind man to understand color?
If a man were born blind, how could he understand color? What if you explained to him what light was, and all of its wavelengths and frequencies? That's not color. What if you explained to him all of the biochemical reactions that go on in his brain when he sees color, or thinks of color? Suppose that he understood everything about how the eye works and how the brain processes information about color? Does he understand color?
A materialist would be forced to say "yes", because the materialist believes that color is nothing more than brain chemistry. From the materialist's own definition of the world, the blind man understands color as well as any man with sight. But that isn't quite right, is it? We know that a blind man can never truly understand color.
2007-07-02
16:00:38
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7 answers
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asked by
Anonymous
in
Philosophy