Problems of Identity through an Achromatopsic Lens
Now this thought experiment is meant to demonstrate the potential epistemic value of an experience, which is relevant to this project insofar as epistemologically valuable experiences can cause a shift in one's personal identity conception. But what presses my mind more actively is that, for whatever reason, as many times and in as many different ways as I have heard this thought experiment presented, it never occurred to me that Mary's epistemic position was potentially just as unknown and special to the rest of the world as the rest of the world's was to her. Of course this point supports the primary objective of the thought experiment itself, but it seems to capture quite well the experiences of Mr. I and others who come to adapt to their cerebral achromatopsia. Mr. I did not immediately recognize the value of his position because his worldview had been molded by the idea that color was a substantial component of beauty. But living in a world devoid of all color, forced to accept a new reality, Mr. I was able to break free of one of his deepest convictions relatively quickly (his story is certainly a testimony both to the potency of an assumed personal identity and to the fallibility of even the most ingrained of perspectives). Now Mr. I. lives in a leaden world he can explain to us as easily as we can explain our colored world to an adapted him – that is, hardly at all.
I mention back on this page that the outcome of Mr. I.’s transformation turned out to be the exact opposite of what he and his friends thought it would be. Mr. I. was still Mr. I., but a somehow better Mr. I. While I am arguing – as Mr. I. himself did – that Mr. I.’s adapted vision is not a disability, I also want to be clear that I only even consider it slightly special for its rarity. We have a tendency to either shame or worship outliers, but transitional cases like Mr. I.’s, cases in which a person is commendable before and after their transition into the other, seem to demonstrate the unfortunate subjectivity of communal views on identity. Ideally, all people would receive and cyclically foster respect for each other on principle of shared humanity. If a person with any sort of achromatopsia suffers an identity crisis, it is most often a direct result of not having a socially-constructed position into which they might insert themselves. It is difficult to hold oneself up by one's more or less natural nonphysical tendencies.
