In 1688, Irish scientist and politician William Molyneux sent a letter to the renowned philosopher John Locke, in which he posed a mystery that sparked the interest of the entire scientific community of the time. a thought experiment known as the Molyneux Problem , and still arouses interest.
Throughout this article, we will discuss this issue, which is debated and discussed in both the fields of medicine and philosophy, and which still generates numerous disagreements among researchers and thinkers.
What's Molyneux's problem?
Throughout his career, Molyneux was particularly interested in the mysteries of optics and the psychology of vision. The main reason for this is that his wife lost her sight when she was very young.
The main question posed by the scientist was whether a person born blind who has learned over time to distinguish and name different objects through touch would be able to recognize them on sight if at some point in his life he recovered.
The background that led Molyneux to formulate this question was inspired by a writing by the philosopher John Locke, in which he made a distinction between the ideas or concepts that we acquire through a single sense and those for which we need more than one type of perception.
Since Molyneux was a great admirer of this English intellectual, he decided to send his thoughts by mail... which, at first, received no response. However, two years later, with the newfound friendship between these two thinkers, Locke decided to respond, and with great enthusiasm.
This included Molyneux's problem in his work, allowing this reflection to reach a much larger audience .
Locke exemplified this issue as follows: a man blind from birth learns to distinguish by touch a cube and a sphere made of the same materials and of the same size. Suppose now that this man regains his sight and the two objects are placed in front of him, could he distinguish and name them without touching them first, just by sight?
Molyneux's problem at the time attracted the attention of numerous philosophers, most of whom have now become leading figures. Among them were Berkeley, Leibniz, William James, and Voltaire himself.
The first discussions of the time
The first reactions of the philosophers of the time denied, first of all, the possibility of a blind person being born acquiring sight, then considered the Molyneux problem as a type of mental challenge that could only be resolved by reason.
They all agreed that the sensations perceived by the senses of sight and touch differ from each other, but they were able to reach agreement on how they were related. Some, like Berkeley, thought this relationship was arbitrary and could only be based on experience.
However, some determined that this relationship was necessary and based on innate knowledge, while others, such as Molyneux and Locke, thought that this relationship was necessary and learned from experience.
Once the opinions and thoughts of each and every one of these philosophers were gathered together, it was seen that they all those who belonged to the empiricist current of philosophy at the time , like Molyneux, Locke, and Berkeley, answered in the negative: the blind man would not be able to associate what he was seeing, on the one hand, with what he had once touched, on the other. Conversely, those who followed rationalist positions tended to give affirmative answers; therefore, there was no way to obtain a unanimous solution.
Some philosophers believed that a person deprived of the sense of sight from birth could respond directly when observing objects. However, the rest believed that a person would need to use their memory and reason and should be able to observe all sides of objects moving around them.
- You may be interested in: ” The 11 parts of the eye and their functions “
What do the studies say?
Despite the impossibility of carrying out scientific studies that could solve Molyneux's problem, in 1728, the English anatomist William Cheselden published the case of a child with congenital blindness that he could see after a cataract operation.
Throughout this case, it is stated that when the child was able to see for the first time, he was not able to recognize, by sight, the shape of things, and that he was unable to differentiate between various objects.
Some philosophers, including Voltaire, Camper and Berkeley, considered the English physician's observations obvious and irrefutable, confirming the hypothesis that a blind person who regains his sight is unable to differentiate objects until he learns to see.
However, others were skeptical of these tests. They considered it possible that the child had not been able to make valid value judgments because his eyes were not working properly and that it was necessary to give him some time to recover. Others also pointed out that the boy's intelligence could also influence the validity of his answers.
Modern approaches to the thought experiment
Throughout the 19th century, all sorts of stories and studies about cataract surgery patients were published, attempting to shed some light on Molyneux's problem. As expected, results of all kinds emerged , some in favor of Cheselden's results and others against. Furthermore, these cases were impossible to compare, as the pre- and postoperative circumstances were quite different. Consequently, Molyneux's problem was discussed frequently, without reaching an agreement on its solution.
Regarding Molyneux's problem, in the 20th century, it focused on the historical and biographical reviews of the philosophers who analyzed it and proposed solutions. Over the years, this enigma has come to encompass all kinds of scientific fields, such as psychology, ophthalmology, neurophysiology and even mathematics and art.
In 1985, with the incorporation of new technologies into the health field, another variation of Molyneux's problem was proposed. This questioned whether the visual cortex of a patient with congenital blindness could be electrically stimulated so that the patient could perceive a pattern of cube or sphere-shaped flashes of light . However, even with these methods, it was not possible to establish a correct answer to the question.
The problem that could never be solved
We are certain that at no point was Molyneux aware of the commotion his question would cause throughout history. In this sense, it can be concluded that Molyneux's Problem is one of the most productive and productive thought experiments proposed throughout the history of philosophy, remains shrouded in the same mystery as when Molyneux placed it in 1688 .