the hardest essay question ever

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aligator

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in my opinion (i made it up) this question is almost impossible to answer; answers are to be under 500 words:
how do you explain any of the colors: purple, yellow, or blue to a person born blind

i mean just think about it, it took Helen Keller forever to discover what water is even though she interacted with it every day
 
I have one that is just as difficult. How do you use sign language to describe a sound to a person born deaf?
 
Mak's question makes more sense.

There is no tangible benefit (to a blind person) in learning about the existence of colors. I mean, they can't see them and they won't benefit by knowing their existence.

However, sounds are essential even to the deaf. However deaf people know what sounds are by correlating sound with the vibrations that cause them. That's how Hellen Keller learned to speak - by feeling the vibrations of the throat that are made as a person speaks and sound is generated.
 
well i did a bit of research heres what i found:
People who are blind do dream. The dreams of people who have been blind from a very early age (called “congenital blindness”) tend to be different from those who are blind now but had sight before. Those who are congenitally blind often have dreams that include more instances of sounds. Both groups experience dreams as imaginatively rich as those of sighted people.


but when there not seeing do they see black????? in other words do they see black the whole time?
 
I know a few people who are partially or totally blind. Visual dreams are simply unrealistic for those who have never seen, but rather, blurry images, shades of light, or memories of items they've come in contact with or of emotions they've had or are feeling. For those who have seen before, then visual dreams are existent. I have a friend who went blind from early on, but occasionally has flashbacks of memories of when he could see.
 
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Ali nobody can answer it. How can we answer a question for something we have never experienced before? Can you answer what it feels like to go thru labor pains? Can you answer what it is like ot have a child grow inside you like a woman can?

Can you explain what it is like to be on a professional sports team?

These are questions that we can not possibly answer cause we have not experienced them. You will have to ask someone yourself to find the answer. The internet may be great. But it does not hold every answer in the world.
 
i knw that there are somethings that you can't explain
Ali nobody can answer it. How can we answer a question for something we have never experienced before? Can you answer what it feels like to go thru labor pains? Can you answer what it is like ot have a child grow inside you like a woman can?
Can you explain what it is like to be on a professional sports team?

These are questions that we can not possibly answer cause we have not experienced them. You will have to ask someone yourself to find the answer. The internet may be great. But it does not hold every answer in the world.
but with the help of others you can the same way how you can share your son or fathers or brothers joy in his accomplishments the same way you can share your friends grief over his relative even though you never new the deceased then through that you can share and understand some processes to some extent by them talking about it; a women can explain the pain of giving birth and you might not feel the pain but you can almost imagine it so how to get a blind person to imagine colors????
 
Ali,

You are not getting what i am saying at all. How can we share this experience? How would we even know? WE HAVE NOT EXPERIENCED IT.

You are asking us to answer questoins which we have no basis to forma a answer cause we do not know anyone who has experienced it nor have we experienced it ourselves.

Yes with my statements you can find out cause you can fin dsomeone who has experienced it. But you will not find that on a online forums. Go out into the world and find someone who CAN answer this for you. WE can not. You will need real live people who know someone who is blind or someone who has gone blind.

To ask us to explain it owuld be like me asking you to tell me of how it was to grow up with my father. You did not experience it. But i want you to explain it to me. Without my help. Explain it to me what it was like growing up with Tom Cruise's parents. With not help from him.

What you are asking is impossible for us to answer. Yet you want us to answer it thinking that we know someone who has gone thru it or we can "guess" what it would be like. We can not.

Do they dream in color....that was answered already. If they went blind they do have some previous knowledge of color and yes they dream in color. If they were born blind. Who knows. Ask someone who was blind from birth. We can not answer that here.

That is what i am trying to say. We on this forum can not answer these questions for you. You will have to find out for yourself. We do not hold the answer and we can not guess as to what the answer will be.
 
alright that's all good no answers to bad found here
did anyone read about that one student who was asked as an application to one of those really good colleges to write an essay about the meaning of courage and he sent in a blank paper and was accepted
 
Winston S. Churchill however managed a "pass" on his entrance exam to Harrow School, by the simple expedient of writing his name on an otherwise blank sheet of paper. (I've a feeling that John Smith might not have had the same luck )
 
Ali: CG & Mak are right.. if you aren't happy with the answers provided, please go elsewhere to seek them.

I am personally what could be considered legally blind as well as have friends (some) who are completely, so the best answer here is that of what my peers who are blind describe it to me as being. That's the best answer you are going to get here.
 
okay thank you all so its all garbage
justin i didn;t mean to offend anyone sorry if i did i am just overly curious
i don't get what terry is saying
 
I was saying Ali, that the blank essay story might be an urban myth, but if you're a well connected member of the English Establishment, all things are possible.
Churchill admits in his own autobiography that his complete failure to add anything other than ink smudges to his name on the entrance examination paper didn't prevent him passing the exam and becoming a Harrovian.
 
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