At First Sight

Title: At First Sight
Date: October 6, 2010
Class: Theory of Knowledge
Category: In Class



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            During our Theory of Knowledge Class, we watched a short YouTube clip taken from a movie where the main character is able to see for the first time in his life. He had been blind his whole life, and after a successful eye surgery, he is able to see the world. Although he is able to see, he is not able to understand what he sees and therefore feels that something is wrong due to this drastic change in his life. He fears what he has not experienced before such as movement and light. This makes him want to go back to not seeing, and touching in order to perceive. To calm him down, the doctor brings a coke can to his hands and allows him to perceive it through his cutaneous perception. He understands what he perceives when he physically touches it because he is used to this way of perceiving. The character slowly begins to understand what certain things look like by perceiving it first with his sense of touch, then opening his eyes to understand what he is seeing. By doing this, his fingers were telling his brain what he was perceiving, his brains was telling his eyes and then he was able to perceive through sight.

            Because he was able to see for the first time, he did not have any picture or image in his mind before perceiving something. He did not have any expectations to how something should appear. In this sense, he had the beginner’s mind, a mind empty of all stereotypes, previous thoughts and ideas towards something. Since he has no idea of what something should look like, is he able to judge by appearance? Does the appearance of physical objects cause one to judge? Can we judge without knowing what something looks like? Is he able to tell what is beautiful and what is not? What is being “beautiful”? Does the idea of beauty depend on each person? Do people agree with what is considered to be beautiful? Is beauty then, relative or absolute?