Marjolein Degenaar/ Barry Ginley/ Brian Glenney
Listen to the recording here or on YouTube
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
Brian Glenney, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Norwich University
Chair
Clare Moriarty, Fellow, Forum for Philosophy and Teaching Fellow in Philosophy, UCD
In association with the British Society for the History of Philosophy
