Do people that were born blind have an imagination?

Question

An imagination is primarily based on things that you have seen before. So therefore, is it at all possible for people born blind to have an imagination of what objects look like? Even things as simple as cars, fruits, colors, or even faces?

Answer 1

Go ask Hellen Keller. I think she might be able to set you straight on a point or two.

Answer 2

An imagination is not primarily based on things seen before. An imagination is creative; sure there may be stuff seen/experienced before but it wouldn't be imaginative if nothing new or creative was thought up. I should emphasise this experience bit.
Furthermore objects don't have to be seen to be understood. There are blind artists that use their creativity to come up with weird and wonderful textures, shapes and forms.
An imagination doesn't need to be visual; it could be purely muscial, philosophical or abstract amongst other things.
So yes, and what's more I don't think that there is a blind person without an imagination.

Answer 3

Imagination is something that we are all born with the ability to use in our own unique way. Being blind no way limits the imagination any more than being deaf. Having the lack of one sense often makes the other remaining senses far more sensitive, so a blind person's imagination is most likely more vivid than a "normal" person's is.

Answer 4

Imagination is based on things we have experienced before. People born blind have imaginations, but their imagination do not have a visual component. Imagination is simply the known extended into the unknown. Blind people's imagination of what objects "look like" is simply based on their tactile memory rather than their visual memory.

Answer 5

Blind people do have an imagination... the thing is that what they hear, feel, smell, and taste allow them to interpret objects differently than if someone was just to see it. So when thinking about objects and things, they mostly rely on there other senses to remember what they are like... It doesn't mean that they don't have an imagination

Answer 6

Being born blind just mean you have to be MORE imaginative because you have only a little bit of the influence that anyone else has. It's kinda likefiguring out what dinosaurs look like; you have some of the bones to figure out the shape of the dinosaur, and you have the reaserch to find out what type of dinosaur; but you have no idea whatsoever what color the dinosaur is - not that i have any experience with it = but it would bemy best guess.

Answer 7

I saw an interesting article written by a blind engineering student that might give you a partial answer to that, and I have included his article in the web site listed below.

Remember Helen Keller who couldn't see or hear, and she wrote books, and could learn just about anything and went to college while her assistant signed into her hands and she read it. She had a great imagination too, but below is the article that I wanted to bring to your attention.

Answer 8

I am not blind, nor handicapped in any way but I must believe that imagination is not limited to things you experience by sight only. Any human experience through any sense can be used to fuel imagination.

Answer 9

Actually, imagination can also be based on what you have heard, smelled, tasted, and felt before.

Many people who are born blind have become writers and musicians and sculptors. These are clearly imaginative fields.

Answer 10

Well they obviously wouldn't be able to read this question and tell you.