Can mental faculties function without any original physical input?

[redsaint182]

Can mental faculties (imagination, reason, memory, etc.) function without input from the physical senses? Now, obviously we can use these mental faculties without "continuous" physical input (memory will retain past input, and we can work in the abstract with imagination+other faculties,) but if there was no original physical input to begin with, no information to use, can we still use our mental faculties?

 

What does modern science say about this, and if you know, can you link to any sources?

[Ringer]

Well any testing of this would probably be highly unethical. I doubt there have been any tries to do this. Also, the question seems to be philosophical. Would mental faculties exist without senses. What do people actually remember/imagine/etc. Personally I would say no insofar that most mental faculties are reactions to physical stimuli. What would one imagine if one has never heard/seen/felt/tasted/etc. What would one remember if nothing has been experienced.

[redsaint182]

Well any testing of this would probably be highly unethical. I doubt there have been any tries to do this. Also, the question seems to be philosophical. Would mental faculties exist without senses. What do people actually remember/imagine/etc. Personally I would say no insofar that most mental faculties are reactions to physical stimuli. What would one imagine if one has never heard/seen/felt/tasted/etc. What would one remember if nothing has been experienced.

 

Hi Ringer, thanks for the reply. Yes, i agree that directly testing this would be unethical (as it would probably involve raising a baby in some sort of sensory deprivation chamber.) And yes, I do ask this question for philosophical purposes (but I didn't put it in the philosophy section as I wanted to hear the scientific evidence for tabula rasa, as opposed to a philosophical debate about it--also I don't have the required 30 posts yet.)

 

I think mental faculties would exist without senses, but I am wondering if they would function, and I would think that they wouldn't--but I don't know for sure. I lean towards the idea of tabula rasa, but the best I can come up with--without scientific evidence--is an argument from analogy to a computer. And while I think that argument would be somewhat valid, I generally don't like arguments from analogy if it can be helped. So maybe there are some experiments that could be done/have been done that would indirectly point us to the answer to this question?

Edited September 10, 2010 by redsaint182

[Ringer]

The blank slate theory is false. Think of it this way, if the brain were in fact a tabula rasa how would we know what noises we should use in language. In a lot of societies children are not even spoken to directly yet they learn language just fine.

[Mr Skeptic]

Some people think not:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embodied_cognition

Philosophers, cognitive scientists and artificial intelligence researchers who study embodied cognition and the embodied mind believe that the nature of the human mind is largely determined by the form of the human body. They argue that all aspects of cognition, such as ideas, thoughts, concepts and categories are shaped by aspects of the body. These aspects include the perceptual system, the intuitions that underlie the ability to move, activities and interactions with our environment and the naive understanding of the world that is built into the body and the brain.

[DrmDoc]

Can mental faculties (imagination, reason, memory, etc.) function without input from the physical senses? Now, obviously we can use these mental faculties without "continuous" physical input (memory will retain past input, and we can work in the abstract with imagination+other faculties,) but if there was no original physical input to begin with, no information to use, can we still use our mental faculties?

 

What does modern science say about this, and if you know, can you link to any sources?

 

Simply stated, we can not. We cannot employ certain mental faculties to the full extent of their use without an original sensory source of input as reference. Although the cogenitally blind, for example, can imagine the tactile shape of an object previously touched, they cannot fully conceive in mind the shade, colors, and other visual nuances of the object. How can a congenitally blind individual fully comprehend, imagine, or reason the distinction between light and dark or red and orange without ever having a visual reference for comparison? From another perspective, much of what we know and are able to do mentally and physically is predicated on what we have learned and experienced. What we learn and experience provides our brain with the data input its mental response systems (imagination, reason, memory, etc.) requires to effectively navigate the physical, mental, and emotional realities of life experience. Without that input, those systems are effectively impaired by what could be considered omissions in their reference database. Feral children, perhaps, provides the best example of how what we do and do not learn and experience shape the mental faculities we employ.

Edited September 12, 2010 by DrmDoc

[Marat]

Two centuries ago Kant argued that unless you had a reasonably stable empirical world in front of you, you would never be able to perceive yourself as an equally stable, perdurant, consciousness-thing which exists as the stage of that stable world which focuses you into determinate form as an internally perceivable object.

 

Ca. 1200 Emperor Frederick II in Sicily wanted to know what the natural language of humans was, and so he tried an experiment in which babies were raised from birth in an isolated chamber where they had only minimal contact with nurses who fed and cared for them, but who were ordered never to speak in their presence. Frederick thought that these infants would spontaneously begin to speak Hebrew, which he believed was the language of God and thus the natural language of humans. However, all the infants soon died, because infants need loving care to live, so a perceptual deprivation experiment would not work.

[Mrs Zeta]

If you buy a new computer with all the circuits in place, but no pre-installed programs, then it won't function. If you don't input information into the brain, it won't function. Not only that, but if you fail to continue intentionally supplying your brain with meaningful information, it will soon degenerate, and cease to function (brain ageing)

[Ahsan Iqbal]

I dont think we have the technology available to test this sort of think because making the senses not work is going to damage the individuals health as well and he won't be able to survive. If we, somehow, do the work in the brain itself, then we will be working on a modified brain not an ordinary hiuman brain. So I don't think there is any way of testing this sort of thing but yes philosophical point of view can be generated.