Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Do completely blind people think the world as more abstract than sighted people do? (self.Blind)
submitted by snorken123
I'm a sighted person, hobby drawer and hobby photographer. I'm curious on if people who are born blind think the world as something more abstract than what sighted people do.
Why I'm wondering is because of when sighted people is part of a conversation, they can see the person they're talking to. If you can't see, the person is invisible to you I've heard. It's not always everything around you gets touched, smelled, heard and so on, but you still have learned about many different concepts out there - like art, buildings far away etc. Are they abstract concepts to you until you've touched, smelled, heard or tasted something?
I've heard not everyone have been to Paris, seen, touched or smelled the Eiffel Tower for example. So does it feel more abstract than concrete? I know, the question may seem a bit weird.
As a visual person seeing things have helped me understand certain things as concrete concepts instead of abstract. My brain remember things I've learned better through making things concrete and has helped my studies. I've even made non concrete things like emotions, relationships etc. concrete by drawing these things in images. Family becomes a group of people, love becomes people having fun together appreciating each others, death becomes a skull etc. I'm wondering if it's the opposite for blind - that thinking something as abstract improve the learning experience. Instead of thinking of a face it's thinking about an emotional or personality trait?
Why I'm wondering is because of when sighted people is part of a conversation, they can see the person they're talking to. If you can't see, the person is invisible to you I've heard. It's not always everything around you gets touched, smelled, heard and so on, but you still have learned about many different concepts out there - like art, buildings far away etc. Are they abstract concepts to you until you've touched, smelled, heard or tasted something?
I've heard not everyone have been to Paris, seen, touched or smelled the Eiffel Tower for example. So does it feel more abstract than concrete? I know, the question may seem a bit weird.
As a visual person seeing things have helped me understand certain things as concrete concepts instead of abstract. My brain remember things I've learned better through making things concrete and has helped my studies. I've even made non concrete things like emotions, relationships etc. concrete by drawing these things in images. Family becomes a group of people, love becomes people having fun together appreciating each others, death becomes a skull etc. I'm wondering if it's the opposite for blind - that thinking something as abstract improve the learning experience. Instead of thinking of a face it's thinking about an emotional or personality trait?
blindbat84 3 points 2y ago
Being totally blind now, no light perception even, I sometimes get in an odd headspace thinking about what is really real and there.
For example, when it is super quiet out with no birds, it seems that the ground under my feet and my cane are the only solid ground.
This random thinking gets really trippy in fall with leaves on the ground. Suddenly the leaves skitter up the street 'illuminating' the asphalt in my mind so to speak. It makes me aware of exactly where the asphalt of the road is compared to grass and trees in the distance and such.
Summer has cicadas but they just let me know where most trees are, otherwise they are too loud.
So I guess I do think more abstractly at times:
For example, when it is super quiet out with no birds, it seems that the ground under my feet and my cane are the only solid ground.
This random thinking gets really trippy in fall with leaves on the ground. Suddenly the leaves skitter up the street 'illuminating' the asphalt in my mind so to speak. It makes me aware of exactly where the asphalt of the road is compared to grass and trees in the distance and such.
Summer has cicadas but they just let me know where most trees are, otherwise they are too loud.
So I guess I do think more abstractly at times:
DrillInstructorJan 4 points 2y ago
Yes! I totally get that.
I stand out in the rain in the back yard because it lets me hear where the house is. You can totally end up in your own weird little world with just the ground and whatever the cane is hitting. It's kind of bad because it can lead you to zone out and start thinking about random other stuff, at which point you find that low overhanging branch or whatever. Then yeah, like you say, a car passes and you become aware of the wall on the other side of the path or whatever from the sound bouncing back. Humans are supposed to have sight.
As to abstract, people go on about how weird looking Trump is for instance, but all I know of him is that he has kind of an annoying nasal voice and the mean little views of someone who doesn't get out much, so his notorious haircut will have to forever remain in the abstract to me.
I stand out in the rain in the back yard because it lets me hear where the house is. You can totally end up in your own weird little world with just the ground and whatever the cane is hitting. It's kind of bad because it can lead you to zone out and start thinking about random other stuff, at which point you find that low overhanging branch or whatever. Then yeah, like you say, a car passes and you become aware of the wall on the other side of the path or whatever from the sound bouncing back. Humans are supposed to have sight.
As to abstract, people go on about how weird looking Trump is for instance, but all I know of him is that he has kind of an annoying nasal voice and the mean little views of someone who doesn't get out much, so his notorious haircut will have to forever remain in the abstract to me.
Prefect316 3 points 2y ago
Can only speak for myself, but abstract is 100 percent the word I choose to employ when asked how I, a totally blind person, perceive art, colors, and things like that.
achromatic_03 2 points 2y ago
I just want to chime in, as I am not totally blind (but still legally blind), and even though I can see everything and every color, I would still think of myself as an abstract thinker, and I don't really think I always create concrete images in my head when I think about abstract concepts. And I think this may have more to do with other factors, like the fact that I'm very introspective, have a strong affinity for abstract concepts (studied psych in college), and I invite a lot of complexity and diversity into my life. For instance, if you maybe live a more sheltered life, keeping concepts more concrete is probably easier. If you think of a couple, you might picture a very prototypical male and female, as that could be all you are exposed to. However, let's say you really immerse yourself within the LGBQTIA+ community. It's harder to retain that concrete image as your prototype of a couple, as the continuums of gender and sexuality create a very large number of possibilities for what a couple looks like and the couples that you come to know...it might even be that couple isn't the right word any longer for the relationships you encounter, as you might meet a lot of people in polyamorous relationships, and so on and so on. I just think there are a lot of things that could make someone a more abstract thinker :-)
oncenightvaler 1 points 2y ago
I wouldn't say the world is more abstract, but I probably think of the world quite differently.
There is a poem about the Blind Men and the Elephant by John Saxe. In that poem there are six blind men and each feel a part of the elephant the trunk, the body, the tail, etc and then judge what the whole is based on the part they touched. I make composite pictures in my mind based on the things I touch.
I live in a house on a street in a town in a region in a province of Canada which is part of North America.
If I imagine a tree I start with the roots, then the bark and the trunk, then the branches, then the leaves and fruit.
So if anything I guess I would view the world as more complex than abstract.
There is a poem about the Blind Men and the Elephant by John Saxe. In that poem there are six blind men and each feel a part of the elephant the trunk, the body, the tail, etc and then judge what the whole is based on the part they touched. I make composite pictures in my mind based on the things I touch.
I live in a house on a street in a town in a region in a province of Canada which is part of North America.
If I imagine a tree I start with the roots, then the bark and the trunk, then the branches, then the leaves and fruit.
So if anything I guess I would view the world as more complex than abstract.
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