[nabs-l] Heightened Senses

Thu Sep 23 06:40:47 UTC 2010

I'm currently planning on doing some work on the philosophy of perception as 
part of my philosophy of mind comprehensive exam next semester.  I find this 
stuff incredibly interesting, and not just with respect to its relation to 
blindness.

I'm totally on board with the ideas that have been put forward to explain 
why people might have this particular, and very widely held, misconception: 
1, we must receive some sort of compensation for the horible tragedy we've 
undergone, 2, of course we have special abilities, or how else would we 
succeed in the world.  That seems right to me.

I'm less sure I'm on board with the distinctions introduced to make sense of 
the misconception: 1, abilities and capacities, and 2, sensory abilities and 
sensory skills.

The way I understand the difference between abilities and capacities is as 
equivalent to the meaning of can and could.  I can run a hundred metres in 
less than 15 seconds is not the same as saying I could run a hundred metres 
in 15 seconds.  The former suggests I can do it right now; it's currently 
within my powers to do this.  The latter, on the other hand, allows for the 
possibility that I cannot perform the task at this moment, but I would be 
able to if I, say, spent the next two years training three times a week.

I take it that the point is that some blind people may, I stress may, 
possess certain abilities not possessed by the average sighted person, but 
the average sighted person possesses the capacities to develop the abilities 
that some blind people possess.

This doesn't seem entirely right to me.  There is, however, a sense in which 
it is true.  Suppose that some abilities are only acquired if sight is 
absent from birth.  This might occur because parts of the brain normally 
devoted to the processing of visual information are available to be taken up 
in the processing of other sensory information.  There is also evidence that 
people who are blind from birth, not all such people , but a statistically 
significant percentage, can discriminate auditory stimuli that sighted 
people cannot.  It's perhaps true that, if a person capable of seeing spent 
her entire life without using her ability to see, thereby freeing up the 
visual processing area of the brain, she might develop the ability to 
discriminate auditory stimuli as well as a person that is blind from birth, 
but I contend that she could no longer be considered sighted in any 
meaningful sense of the word.  She would be functionally blind.  See the 
book, Crashing Through, a book about a man named Mike May who has some sight 
restored at the age of 43 after being completely blind since the age of 3 if 
you want a better sense of why I say the sighted person who never used her 
ability to see would actually be blind.  The point of all of this is that I 
think some abilities that blind people possess, namely, all those abilities 
that only arise as a result of very early onset and long lasting blindness, 
are abilities that sighted people do not have the capacity to possess.  If 
this is right, then some blind people can do things that sighted people 
cannot, and could not, do, and I think this is all that is meant by the 
misconception that blind people have heightened senses.

I would say more about the sensory ability-sensory skill distinction, but 
this is running long, so I'll try to be brief.

1. I agree that developing one ability, the ability to distinguish braille 
writing through touch for example, does not necessarily imply a better sense 
of touch more generally.  But perhaps I think these abilities are more 
adaptable than others do.  A blind person might not be able to tell the make 
of a car by its engine sound, but if she happened to have been blind from 
birth, and she sat down with a sighted person, and the two of them worked 
equally hard on trying to learn how to tell the make of a car through its 
engine sound, my money would be on the blind person to be better able to do 
this.  Sure, I'd lose this bet occasionally, but I think I'd be right in the 
long run.  This is because developing an ability to use a sense in a 
particular way, at the very least, contributes to one's overall ability to 
use the sense in other ways.

2. Arielle said, they should be taught that it's the sensory skills, not 
innate sensory abilities, that help us adapt to blindness.

If sensory abilities are "characteristics of a species that have a variable 
but limited range", then I don't think the misconception is that blind 
people have innate sensory abilities that differ from those of sighted 
people.  It's not that blind people possess different senses, or that blind 
people possess abilities that lie beyond the limits set by the species homo 
sapien.  Perhaps more precisely, it doesn't *have* to be these things.  It 
might just be, as I have suggested, that some blind people possess abilities 
and capacities that could not be possessed by sighted people, and that this 
is all that is meant by the notion that blind people have heightened senses.

The misconception can have negative consequences, and it is often attributed 
to all blind people, and it should be challenged through education.  I'm 
only suggesting that it might not be completely, entirely, absolutely 
without any kernel of truth whatsoever.

Best,

Marc
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Arielle Silverman" <nabs.president at gmail.com>
To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list" 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 22, 2010 1:38 PM
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Heightened Senses

> Hi all,
>
> Two points I would add:
> 1. There is a difference between sensory abilities and sensory skills.
> Sensory abilities are characteristics of a species that have a
> variable but limited range, such as visual acuity or whatever the
> equivalent is for hearing, smell, touch, etc. Human beings can only
> get so good at seeing, hearing, etc. Sensory skills, by contrast, are
> abilities to perceive or discriminate specific stimuli through
> practice. Braille is a good example of this; through training, blind
> people can learn to discriminate Braille dots by touch, but I don't
> think that necessarily means that they are more sensitive to all touch
> stimuli. Similarly, I might be able to differentiate traffic patterns
> by hearing when I am specifically paying attention because I was
> taught this skill, but that doesn't mean I can tell what type of car
> is driving by through listening to its engine, because that's an
> auditory skill I haven't practiced. A sighted person can learn these
> and other sensory skills, too, assuming their senses are in the normal
> human ability range, but sighted people usually aren't motivated to do
> so because the equivalent visual skills are more readily applicable
> (i.e. they learn to discriminate print letters instead of Braille
> because print is more widely available, and they look at traffic
> signals because this information is more intuitive and accurate than
> listening).
>
> 2. Blind people, like sighted people, aren't all the same. Some can
> hear, smell or feel better than others, for a wide variety of reasons
> having nothing to do with blindness. Similarly, different blind people
> have different aptitudes at sensory skills based on individual
> differences and the quality of training they received. So claiming
> that we all have amazing senses is just as erroneous as saying all
> sighted people hear, smell, etc. at the same ability level.
>
> I agree that people might use these compensatory stereotypes to try to
> justify the fairness of the world. I also think people might rely on
> these beliefs to try to explain to themselves how people can be blind
> and still successfully participate in life. They are right in that we
> need to use our other senses to get things done, but they should be
> taught that it's the sensory skills, not innate sensory abilities,
> that help us adapt to blindness.
>
> Arielle
>
> On 9/22/10, Sean Whalen <smwhalenpsp at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I agree with those who have said that we do not have heightened senses, 
>> we
>> just develop and use them to a greater degree. I generally try to explain
>> that to people whenever possible.
>>
>> I think there is a point to what Mark brings to light with the running
>> example. I would say that there is a distinction between abilities and
>> capacities. I have a greater ability to use my hearing than do most 
>> people,
>> but they, theoretically, have the capacity to develop the ability to do 
>> the
>> same. We all have the same hardware, but some of us develop and refine 
>> our
>> ability to utilize it beyond what is common; just as the long distance
>> runner develops her ability to run through training.
>>
>> The thing that bothers me most about getting comments about my enhanced
>> senses is not the failure to understand that my heightened ability to 
>> employ
>> them comes from a heightened reliance on them and practice in using them 
>> to
>> gather information, but rather that, often times, the comment about
>> heightened senses carries the implication that the heightened senses are 
>> a
>> gift from God, or the universe, or whatever, to compensate for the
>> misfortune of being blind. That rubs me the wrong way for a number of
>> reasons, not the least of which is a feeling that blindness, while 
>> certainly
>> neither easy nor a positive in my life, is less of a misfortune than many
>> people around the world endure, presumably without any wonderful 
>> consolation
>> prize like enhanced sensory perception. Basically, I think some people
>> want/need to believe that it is the case, in order to preserve their 
>> sense
>> that the world is just and fair. Problem is, it isn't.
>>
>> Sorry if this only took us further off the beaten path.
>>
>> All the best,
>>
>> Sean
>>
>>
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>
>
> -- 
> Arielle Silverman
> President, National Association of Blind Students
> Phone:  602-502-2255
> Email:
> nabs.president at gmail.com
> Website:
> www.nabslink.org
>
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