Job Openings: Philosophy and Prompts

Thought Experiment #10

In Full Color:

This is Jerome. Jerome is a Bacca, a large to oversized carnivorous mammalian creature known for their dense, fluffy fur, easily triggered temperaments, and offensive body odors. Baccas are also generally known to have deuteranopia, a common form of colorblindness in which individuals are unable to perceive red and green light waves the same way that the general human population or many other species do. This means that Baccas see almost entirely in hues of blue, yellow, and tan.

If Jerome and someone with full color vision look at the same field of grass, they would likely perceive two very different color pallettes. Jerome can look out at the field and say that he 'sees' green grass and red apples in the tree in the distance, but to what extent can he actually know what green and red are if he has never, and likely will never, perceive them for himself? He can say that he 'sees' these colors on these objects, but does he have a concept of what green and red are beyond what others have told him? How would someone even begin to explain these colors to him? Jerome might go along with what others say and internalize that knowledge and apply it secondhand, but to what extent is that really 'knowing'? Does he have the feeling that he can 'see' the difference between green/red and other colors? Is this something that matters to him at all, or is it only relevant because others make it relevant?

Are there certain facts or types of knowledge that we cannot know for ourselves without experiencing or perceiving them ourselves? How do we handle these known unknowns?