Thank you, Terry Sweet, for a great question!
Those familiar with philosophy will know that philosophers, in approaching any kind of question, try to be as precise as possible about the words they use. Philosophy is characterized as the quest for truth; there can be little or no room for ambiguity.
In approaching this question, a philosopher might start by considering whether it is possible for a dog to know anything at all, in the same sense that humans do. Some will argue that dogs do not really know anything, and that they just act on pure intuition or instinct; that is, though a dog might be in pain, it is unable to form the higher-order belief ‘I am in pain.’ Others have argued that animals can possess knowledge about the world and that they have access to their own mental states and bodily sensations. Having thus examined whether it is possible for a dog to know anything at all, we may now consider whether it is possible for guide dogs, in particular, to know that their owners are blind.
But what does it mean to be blind? According to the scientific definition, it means a complete, or nearly complete, loss of vision. But we may also want to think about the symptoms of blindness, such as being unable to orient, direct or guide oneself around without assistance, and whether these are also important for the question.
The absence of visual perception need not lead to the inability to orient oneself in the world, because the ability to orient oneself does not depend solely on sight. So, we might ask: Could a species with no eyes still become blind? I think it could.
If we oriented ourselves in the world through odour or sound (echolocation) or magnetic fields (magnetoreception), then a human being who had anosmia or was unable to echolocate or had a dysfunctioning magnetic field detection system – they too would be blind, not in the sense that they wouldn’t be able to perceive light, but in the sense that they wouldn’t be able to orient themselves in the world as well as another human being who was only visually impaired (in this scenario).
Now imagine a scenario where humans are able to see things only through soundwaves that trigger our optic nerves, or where light waves allow us to hear by triggering our cochlear nerves. Would a malfunction of either of these systems make us blind? I think it would.
Guide dogs might not be able to understand what ‘My owner can’t see light’ means, or mentally simulate their owner’s condition; but, since being blind is not just a matter of being unable to see, I think that guide dogs could still know that their owners are blind, because they can understand that their owners cannot orient themselves in the world – and that is a defining characteristic of blindness.
What do you think? Do guide dogs know that their owners struggle to orient themselves in the world? Let us know in the comments.
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I did a BA in Philosophy and Psychology followed by an MA in Philosophy at Durham University. I am currently pursuing a PhD in Philosophy at the University of York, focusing on phenomenological aspects of the experience of depression. My areas of specialization are phenomenology, existentialism, and philosophy of religion. I spend some of my free time working on my philosophy podcast, Premise Podcast. If I had to pick a favourite philosopher, it would be Jean-Paul Sartre.