The Molyneux Problem: a curious thought experiment

This enigma, formulated in 1688, sparked one of the greatest philosophical debates in history.

In 1688, the Irish scientist and politician William Molyneux sent a letter to the well-known philosopher John Locke in which he posed a question that aroused the interest of the entire scientific community of the time. It was about a mental experiment known as the Molyneux Problem, and it still arouses interest today.and it still arouses interest today.

Throughout this article we will talk about this question debated and discussed both in the field of medicine and philosophy and that still today generates numerous disagreements between researchers and thinkers.

What is the Molyneux Problem?

Throughout his career, Molyneux was particularly interested in the mysteries of optics and the psychology of sight. The main reason for this is that his own wife lost her sight when she was still very young.

The main question the scientist asked himself was whether a person born blind, who over time has learned to distinguish and name different objects by touch, would be able to recognize them by sight if he or she regained it at some point in his or her life.would be able to recognize them by sight if at some point in his life he regained his sight.

The background that led Molyneux to formulate such a question came inspired by a writing of the philosopher John Locke in which he made a distinction between 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 him his thoughts by mail... which, at first, received no response. However, two years later, with the recent friendship between these two thinkers, Locke decided to answer, moreover, with great enthusiasm.

He included Molyneux's Problem in his work, This made it possible for the reflection to reach a much wider public..

Locke exemplified this question in the following way: 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. Let us now suppose that this man recovers his sight and both objects are placed in front of him, could he then distinguish and name them without touching them first, only by sight?

Molyneux's Problem then 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 first of all denied the possibility that a person blind from birth could acquire sight, so they They regarded the Molyneux Problem as a kind of mental challenge that could only be solved by reason. that could only be solved by reason.

They all agreed that the sensations perceived by the senses of sight and touch differed from each other, but they managed to establish agreement about how they were related. Some of them, like Berkeley, thought that 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, like Molyneux and Locke themselves, thought that this relationship was necessary and learned by experience.

Once the opinions and thoughts of each and every one of these philosophers had been compiled, it became apparent that they all those who belonged to the empiricist current of the philosophy of the time, such as Molyneux, Locke and Berkeley, responded in the negativesuch as Molyneux, Locke and Berkeley, responded 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. On the other hand, those who followed rationalist positions tended to give affirmative answers, so there was no way to reach a unanimous solution.

Part of the philosophers thought that a person deprived of the sense of sight from birth could respond directly the moment he could observe objects. However, the rest thought that the person would need to make use of his memory and reason, and that he should even be able to observe all sides of the objects walking around him.

What do the studies say?

Despite the impossibility to carry out scientific studies that could solve the Molyneux Problem, in 1728, English anatomist William Cheselden published the case of a child with congenital blindness who had been able to see after a cataract operation. who had been able to 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, nor was he able to differentiate between various objects.

Some philosophers, among them Voltaire, Camper or Berkeley considered that the observations of the English physician were evident and irrefutable, thus confirming the hypothesis that a blind person who recovers his sight is not able to differentiate objects until he learns to see.

Others, however, were skeptical of this evidence. They considered that it was possible that the child had not been able to make valid value judgments because the child's eyes were not yet functioning properly. his eyes were not yet functioning properly and that it was necessary to give him some time to recover. and that it was necessary to give him some time to recover. Others, moreover, pointed out that the child'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 of cataract patients were published that attempted to shed some light on the Molyneux Problem. As was to be expected, all kinds of results came out, some in favor of thesome in favor of Cheselden's results and some against. Moreover, these cases were impossible to compare, since the pre- and post-operative circumstances were quite different. As a consequence, the Molyneux Problem was debated very often, without reaching any agreement on a solution to it.

As for the Molyneux Problem in the twentieth century, it focused on historical reviews and biographies of those philosophers who analyzed it and proposed solutions to it. Over the years, this enigma has come to encompass all kinds of scientific fields, such as psychology, ophthalmology, ophthalmology psychology, ophthalmology, neurophysiology and even in mathematics and art.

In 1985, with the incorporation of new technologies in the field of health, another variation of the Molyneux Problem was proposed. This one asked whether the visual cortex of a congenitally blind patient could be electrically stimulated in such a way that the patient would perceive a pattern of flashes of light in the visual cortex. a pattern of flashes of light in the shape of a cube or a sphere.. However, even with these methods it has not been possible to establish a secure answer to the question.

The problem that could never be solved

We are quite sure that at no time was Molyneux aware of the stir that his question would cause throughout history. In this sense, it can be concluded that Molyneux's Problem is one of the most fruitful and productive mental experiments proposed throughout the history of philosophy, which remains shrouded in the same mystery as when Molyneux posed it in 1688..