Comment by sirspacey
1 year ago
A fascinating read, thank you for sharing. Helen’s journey was so unusual in that she neither heard nor saw language, so learning how she formed her inner consciousness through finger spelling was interesting.
1 year ago
A fascinating read, thank you for sharing. Helen’s journey was so unusual in that she neither heard nor saw language, so learning how she formed her inner consciousness through finger spelling was interesting.
She uses the word consciousness but she was clearly conscious beforehand, in terms of the definition: awareness of surroundings and knowledge. She was remarkably capable and had come up with untrained signs for wants and needs. She wasn't a blank canvas with no ability and no information.
Really what she is describing is the development of her self-consciousness, self-image, self-awareness, and awareness of the process of thinking within that, that comes from being introduced to language.
On the wikipedia page for her there is a quote:
I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten — a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that w-a-t-e-r meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. The living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, set it free!
It is as if what she's saying is that the loss of her sight and hearing locked her away from a dim sense of who she was before.
Most of us can't remember things from 19 months old as adults and likely wouldn't have been able to remember them at the age of seven. But she was locked away with sense memories of her 19-month-old experience of the world for all that time.
Her writing really is fascinating and eloquent. It brings to mind Harold Bloom's theory that Shakespeare essentially invented a terminology and model for describing our inner monologues.
It depresses me that there will now be a phalanx of motivated reasoners trying to shoehorn her story somewhere into their projections onto the current technological obsession.
Your comment reminded me a time during my childhood (age 4 to 7 or so) in which I did not have a strong concept of being a discrete person from my younger sister. At the time, we used to confuse our memories. We were never sure if we were remembering our own experience, or the other sister's recollection of her experience. It's like we were sharing one collective identity, until we were old enough to have formed stronger senses of self.
Right - when you’re very young, what you think in your head and what you model of the outside world don’t have the boundaries that we have as adults. Like, I have a nearly physical sense of my thoughts being behind my eyes and between my ears, now. But I also remember falling down the stairs as a young kid… only it actually wasn’t me who fell, it was my sister.
I have a hilarious photo of my then very young nephew, who was hiding from us behind a curtain, but only his face is covered. I think about it often when I wonder if my perception of the world is actually still that removed from that of others.
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My twin and I often have these experiences, even for events which occurred in our teenaged lives. Who did do what..?
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> consciousness ... definition: awareness of surroundings and knowledge
A stone is conscious: when it's cold, its inner state reflects its surroundings. Abrasion marks is long term information: knowledge.
Consciousness does not have a good definition. It is something very specific in humans, compared to other animals. Language and spatial relation of time seem to play an important role.
What I was initially imagining was a complete lack on sensory information and was trying to image what type of mind would emerge from that.
Inside a sensory deprivation chamber I have experienced losing your sense of time, space has no meaning, therefore your mind just assumes that you take up all the space. But you don't keep spiraling down into unconsciousness only to awaken later. The mind eventually settles down and you are very much conscious except any concerns relating to your body and others quickly become distant memories of long forgotten dreams.
That's the reaction of a mind used to sensory input being cut off. How would a mind with not sensory input from the start evolve?. That would more closely resemble what Helen Keller first talks about about not knowing what she was. I'm both fascinated to know and terrified and hope I never do.
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This is similar to what happened to Eve and Adam when they ate from the tree of knowledge. Became self aware, aware of their nakedness. Man became aware of their vulnerabilities, death and so on.
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