Madman Case Study

capabilities as a normal perceiver. Though apples would appear what a normal perceiver would call green, a non-normal perceiver could still discriminate a Macintosh apple from a Red Delicious apple. Non-normal perceivers are thus functionally identical to normal perceivers. Nida-Rümelin, furthermore, argues that the experiences of non-normal perceivers would significantly differ from those of normal perceivers because of their inverted color perception. Because the cones of non-normal perceivers are not simply switched, their perception of red would stimulate areas of the brain that normally perceive green and vice versa. As a result, the experiences of non-normal perceivers would be drastically different those of normal perceivers. However, …show more content…
Lewis struggles to fit the Madman, whose mental state ‘pain’ is caused by irregular stimuli and causes irregular effects, within the functionalist model. Though Lewis ultimately places the Madman into the normal human population as an irregular case, I contend that the Madman could be better described through a causal analysis at the individual level. Such an analysis would be effective because the Madman’s mental states are only functionally irregular compared to the remainder of the human population. When he is considered as an individual, it is revealed that his mental states are apt to be caused by certain stimuli and are apt to cause certain responses, although these stimuli and responses differ from those of the normal population. Such an individual analysis could also functionally explain unique creatures that would typically resist conforming to Lewis’ notion of appropriate population. Thus, a fifth category of appropriate population, namely the individual X, provides a deeper functional understanding of secondary qualities and unique individuals such as the