This, of course. But given that the circumstances of the question are impossible... Without sensory input, no memories or identity could be formed, they wouldn't be a person any more than a headless decapitated body on sophisticated life support would be.

Yes, he would.

Thoughts are merely collections of neurons firing. As long as his brain isn't damaged too severely, his cortex would inevitably fire. His thoughts would be very strange, undeveloped, and instinctual, yet he would still be smarter than any other species on earth. However, with no sensory input to hone and organize neuronal activity, he would be far less developed than any other human.

Hope that helps.

it has been proven, read a little

Following the 2008 disclosure by Belgian newspaper Le Soir[8] that the bestselling book Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years and movie Survivre avec les loups (Surviving with Wolves) was a media hoax, the French media debated the credulity with which numerous cases of feral children have been blindly accepted. Although there are numerous books on these children, almost none of them have been based on archives, the authors instead using rather dubious second or third-hand printed information. According to the French surgeon Serge Aroles, who wrote a general study of feral children based on archives (L'Enigme des Enfants-loups or The Enigma of Wolf-children, 2007), many cases are totally fictitious stories.

If you provide me with credible sources, I may humor you a little.

This post was edited by piddywiffle on Sep 20 2011 08:13am

as far as I think about them being able to create thoughts, im pretty sure they'd arise sontanously based on chemical interactions, but the absence of stimuli is shown to dampen neural activity in general and the thoughts wouldn't be coherent in any way that weve ever known.

part of babies developing is sorting senses into pattens based on what they experience. without any senses to sort or base perception on, one may never get past that stage of development and be a blank slate with random impulses.

the question fundamentally is impossible to begin with though, because senses are intertwined with our very chemical and structural buildup. the person may not have the ones we classify as most important, but they will interact with an environment to some level. we have a difficult to explain sense (besides the classic 5) of spatial relationship and memory. its used to locate our own body parts and its highly developed in athletes and musicians. many of the receptors and interactions that cause it, or what not, are not known and its not likely for someone for someone to be missing that sense without being perpetually unconscious, or pretty much brain dead

Elaborate, OP said no senses at all. What would be these thoughts built of in that case? You should define (derp) thoughts and what they're made of, so you can speculate.

And what do you mean by smarter than any other species on Earth? Basically a savant?

This post was edited by Holod on Sep 20 2011 11:20am

No. Said person (if you can even call it a person), would not have any cognitive function or thoughts. There is nothing to go off of, and no way to form concepts. I spent all day asking this same question running around through the philosophy and psychology department; I kept getting the same answers from everyone. I did a little research as well and everyone seems to agree.