The Truths Behind Made-Up Words

How The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows articulates universal feelings

The interior of an empty cathedral in Étampes. Photo by William Sidnam.

It goes without saying that we can only experience life from one body, with one mind, through one set of eyes. Our view of life is ours and ours alone, and no matter how hard we may try to put ourselves in the shoes of someone else, no matter how close we may think we can come to understanding how others perceive their lives, ultimately, one can only truly comprehend the world from the point of view of one’s particular, subjective, individual life.

But if each one of us has our own mind and body, is it even possible to perceive something in the exact same way as others? This is an epistemological question because it concerns what we are ultimately capable of knowing — and what, conversely, we can never know.

A thing that we might possibly never perceive in the same way as others is what philosophers refer to as a ‘quale’ — a quality or property as perceived or experienced by a person. A quale could, for example, be the blueness of the sky on a sunny day. When I look at the sky, I see a shade of blue. But how do I know that the blue I see in my mind’s eye is the same blue that others see when they behold the sky? What if they look at the sky and see a shade of ‘blue’, except that what looks like ‘blue’ to them looks like red to me? In the absence of colour blindness, how can we know for sure that the colours we see are the same ones that others see?

But qualia, the plural form of quale, aren’t just limited to visual perception but can refer to any personal experiences of sensory perceptions and feelings. When we feel happy, how do we know that the happiness we feel is the same feeling that others feel when they say they’re happy? When we’re sad, can we know if others have felt the exact same feeling, and to the exact same degree of intensity, as us? When we consider something beautiful, can we know if others feel the same feelings that make us recognise something as being beautiful?

I think that as human beings, with the same human nature, there’s a strong likelihood that we can, and do, share the same perceptions as others — just that, ultimately, we can’t know for sure if what we experience is ever exactly the same as what others do. Unless we somehow had…