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Originally Posted by horn
sorry i'm not quite sure what you an weeks are arguing about, i'm not sure exactly what part of his point you are reffering too.
Surely the pain he would experience from bumping into something is direct interaction. Something he could form a concept from. What if the child had no senses at all ?
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If the child has no senses at all this is another debate - we are talking about a child who can't see or hear. They can still feel and presumably smell and taste too.
However, I was unclear in my earlier post. To summarise : Weeks appears to be saying life isn't so bad for this kid because he doesn't know any different.
This may well be true. The kid doesn't (probably) think "Damn, I wish I could see". To use Tom's wording - he does not "miss" seeing, because he's obviously never had it. However, it is quite possible that he experiences considerable difficulties performing basic tasks (e.g. using the toilet, eating, navigating around their home). It's possible that these difficulties lead to a certain amount of pain and discomfort. When reflecting (in a very basic sense) on their pain, they may somehow "wish" there was someway this pain could be eased.
To use an analogy : There is a tribe of people who are cut off from the outside world. They are very "primitive" by our standards - they possess no electrical goods or anything of this nature. Now, obviously they don't "miss" having mobile phones, or modern medicence, since they've never had these things. However, they may well reflect that it's pretty annoying they can't contact someone while that person is out on the hunt, or that 20% of their females die in childbirth or whatnot.