Defining The Mind #3: Mary The Color Blind Scientist.

Hello steemians and, welcome to the series that asks a million questions and provably won't answer one. Defining the mind may be a bottomless rabbit hole, but it sure is an interesting one.

Today I present the thought experiment known as Mary the colorblind scientist. Proposed by philosopher Frank Jackson, where he attempts to provide an argument against physicalism (the belief that everything including the mind is made up of physical stuff). 

Mary is a scientist, who was born only being able to see in black and white. However she has devoted her life to researching everything she can about light and vision. She knows about the different wave lengths of light, and how they effect our retinas producing different shades. As well as all the other physical properties of light and how it effects us. One day, Mary undergoes a corrective surgery to fix her colorblindness, waking up to experience color for the first time in her life.

The question is, did Mary learn anything when she woke up? Jackson claims that she did, and that it shows us scientific explanations and physical properties can not account for everything there is to know about life. 

Debate is still hot on the subject, I could fill a book with all of it. Some claim that she did not learn anything, but simply gained an ability to see what she already learned. Some claim that color is a physical property, but then we must ask is seeing color and experiencing color the same thing?

Like usual, there is no consensus on a correct answer I can give you. But I would highly recommend looking into other perspectives if it interests you.

Image Credit: here