does complete theoretical knowledge allow you to identify something when you experience it, or does recognition require prior experience?
I’ve been thinking about the Mary’s Room thought experiment and wanted to hear how people interpret it.
So incase you haven't heard of the thought experiment, basically Mary has lived her entire life in a black-and-white room, but she knows absolutely everything there is to know about the colour red from a scientific perspective. She understands wavelengths, how the eye processes colour, how the brain responds to red, the language people use to describe it, and every physical fact about colour perception.
Then one day, she is shown the colour red for the first time, but nobody tells her “this is red.”
Would she recognise it as red based on everything she already knows, or would she only experience something new without being able to identify it?
I know the usual question is whether she learns something new when she sees red, but I’m cant help but wonder, does complete theoretical knowledge allow her to identify red when she experiences it, or does recognition require prior experience?