Molyneux’s Problem

All welcome | Free to attend | First come, first served at the door

William Molyneux posed the following question: Consider a person who has been born blind and who has learnt to distinguish a globe and a cube by touch. If this person could suddenly see, would they be able to distinguish these objects by sight alone? This seventeenth-century thought experiment, known as ‘Molyneux’s problem’, received attention from some of philosophy’s greatest minds. We discuss how thinkers like Locke and Leibniz, as well as artists with visual impairments, responded to Molyneux’s challenge.

Speakers

Marjolein Degenaar
Author, Molyneux’s Problem: Three Centuries of Discussion on the Perception of Form

Barry Ginley
Equality and Access Adviser, Victoria & Albert Museum

Simon Hayhoe
Reader, University of Bath
Research Associate, Centre for the Philosophy of Natural & Social Science, LSE

Chair
Clare Moriarty
Fellow, Forum for Philosophy
Teaching Fellow in Philosophy, UCD

In association with the British Society for the History of Philosophy